These Exiled Years
by Ryo314
Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him. Slash JD/Perry
1. Chapter I

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: This is my first _Scrubs _story so comments and constructive criticism are not only welcome, but greatly appreciated. The title is taken from a Flogging Molly song because not only am I a Flogging Molly fan, but the song kind of fit. Italicized words that do not have quotation marks are JD's thoughts. Italicized words with quotation marks are the thoughts of whoever it says.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter I

"_People say that life is the greatest gift God has given us. I believe that death is, for without the possibility of death, what would life be worth?" Oliver Roberts_

_Dr. Cox has been telling me since I started not to get attached to my patients, but sometimes it's just so hard not to: enter Darla Williams. She was a sixty-three year old woman who didn't seem to have any family but quickly got into the heart of every doctor and nurse who worked with her, including mine. The problem was, we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She'd come into the emergency room complaining of chest pains and passed out while she was being examined. For the the week, we'd run every test we could think of, but nothing had worked._

_Last night, after my shift was over, I'd gone in and visited her for a little while, and before I left, I promised her we would find out what was wrong. She'd smiled, took my hand, and said "I trust you."_

_That was the last time I got to talk to her. I'd had a boatload of patients that morning, and it wasn't until my pager went off that I got back to Miss Williams room; she was coding. It didn't matter how hard I tried or how bad I wanted it, I couldn't bring her back. I know Dr. Cox says not get so attached to patients, but I'd promised her we would figure out what was wrong, and I lied. I was angry, but I didn't know who to be angry at. I'd lost patients before, and I'd been close to patients before, but this one just felt different. _

JD sat outside the hospital, staring down at his hands; his shift had been over for twenty minutes, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave yet. About another ten minutes went by before the real world actually penetrated his thoughts. Several people had walked past him and stared, but none of them had bothered to say anything to him, until now.

"Hey there, Diane. As good as an idea as it is for you to sit here and attract customers to the hospital with your horrible case of drama queen-itis, but you might want to get off your ass and actually do something now that your shift is over. How about getting out of my sight?"

JD sighed; he really wasn't in the mood for one of Dr. Cox's rants right now. "Can you please just leave me alone? I'm not in the mood."

"Oh, Katie, was _Gilmore Girls canceled_?"

_Don't even joke about that. _"Please, just leave me alone Dr. Cox. I'm not in the mood for one of your oh-so enlightening rants about how I need to stop being a girl, so please...just leave me alone." _I __suddenly wondered why I'd chosen this particular moment, when I was a mere foot away from a man who could kill me, to as, Dr. Cox always so eloquently put it, "Grow a Pair."_

Upon realizing what he'd just said, JD tried to decide between bracing himself for a blow or running away frantically in the other direction. He thought about each option. The first one ended with him unconscious in a hospital bed and the second ended with him in Cuba dressed as a woman. JD decided the first option was better.

JD, very manly like, put his hands over his head and cowered while waiting for Dr. Cox to hit him. It never happened. After a few moments, JD looked up and saw Dr. Cox merely staring at him; the expression on his face was difficult to read. It was a cross between pure anger and amusement. "Okay, Cinderella. I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but what is wrong?"

_Disney Princesses. That's new._ For a moment, JD waited for him to add something along the lines of "Your boyfriend break up with you?" but it never came. JD swallowed. "You know my patient Miss Williams?"

"Yes, Newbie. I gave you her case. What about her?"

"She coded today."

For a moment, Dr. Cox was actually speechless, but of course that didn't last long. "Nancy, I hate to tell you, but this is a hospital and as hard as we try to prevent it, people die. It's a concept you should have gotten you used to in the nearly two years you've worked here."

JD rubbed his tired eyes. "I told her I would figure out what was wrong; she told me she trusted me. She was just fine last night, and she died."

There was a long bit of silence. "Newbie, as heartbreaking as this all is, get over it. You couldn't have stopped it, and as much as it pa-hains me to say this, you're a good doctor. I'm sure you did everything you could."

"It doesn't feel like it." JD's tone was bitter.

"You see, Lacy, this is why I tell you not to get attached to your patients."

_This is why I tell you not to get attached to your patients. Stupid doctor-head...Why am I so much braver in my mind? _"I really am not in the mood, Dr. Cox."

There was another moment of silence before Dr. Cox spoke again. "Get up, Newbie. We're going."

"Where are we going?"

"If you're going to sulk in your own self-pity you're going to do it right. Now, get up!"

JD decided it was better not to question the now very angry man towering over him. "Okay," said JD, slowly getting off the ground. _I just hope we take a very public route so in case I don't show up to work tomorrow there may some witnesses as to where Dr. Cox has hidden my body. Damn...good looking doctor...Oh God...gotta bury those thoughts! Bury those thoughts! Deeper! And...Better._

XVIIIIV

_"Newbie drunk is a cross somewhere between hilarious and...pathetic...at least I think it usually would be. Right now, it's just pretty damn pathetic. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the kid actually cares for his patients, but there has to be some distance between him and the people he cares for or else it's gonna be like this with every patient he gets close to that he just can't save, and that is the beginning of a slippery slope that a doctor just can't climb back up. Part of me doesn't want him to lose his caring side, not even at all. It seems like even in a year a doctor can lose his ability to care and the fact that the kid still can is pretty amazing."_

_"Jeez. The kid's not even drinking his usual: Appletini's (I heard Dr. Gandhi talking about it one day with Carla at the nurse's station). He actually was brave enough to order a whiskey, but after that fiasco and a Hell of a lot of coughing, he settled for just plain beer. He's on his seventh bottle. The kid is a lightweight, so I'm not envying the way he's gonna feel tomorrow...even if it is kind of funny. God...the kid looks pretty damn down...I'm almost tempted to give him that hug he's always asking for...almost. Crap, he started rambling on about something. Gotta act like I was listening."_

"What did you say, Josephine, I wasn't listening?" Dr. Cox said, taking a swig of his own beer. _"Okay, too hard to act like I cared."_

"There had to be s-s-something I mis-missed," said JD sadly. "I know it-t."

"Newbie, I told you. This is why you need to keep your distance from patients; if you get too close you start to second guess yourself."

"But-but I care about pe-people. I can't hel-help it; I do." JD took another drink.

_"Well, that's why I care about you, Newbie, a lot. Oh God...banish those thoughts...think about something else...um...sports...Dr. Barbie's whining...JORDAN! Ahh...yes...nothing gets rid of pleasant thoughts faster than the thought of Satan's spawn...well at least the spawn of Satan and Bob Kelso. Ah...two slams in one." _Dr. Cox took another drink of his beer and saw that JD was talking again; he also noticed that during his rant of thoughts he'd ordered another beer. _"Crap, is that his eighth or ninth one?"_

"Sorry, Lila, I kind of spaced out on you again. What did you say again?"

"Dr. Cox, I said-d that I-I care for you-you."

"I know, Newbie, you've made that sickening clear over the last year or so."

"No, I mean _really_ care for you. Like a lot." As if the confession had taken everything from him, he downed the beer he'd just bought.

Dr. Cox couldn't actually say he was surprised. A kid doesn't follow you around like a lost puppy, taking every bit of verbal abuse he could throw without caring _a lot_ for someone. _"Damn, I knew this was coming, drunken confessions. I should have taken him bowling; no one's ever heard of bowling confessions. Man, I thought I could break him of this. Did he think girl's names were terms of endearment? Well, okay maybe...crap, he's saying more."_

"I really-really...don't feel so well-ell." JD suddenly got off of the barstool; Dr. Cox expected him to go running to the bathroom, but instead he went rushing outside.

"Damn it, Newbie!" Dr. Cox quickly emptied the beer in front of him and then took off after JD.

Outside the bar, the fall wind was blowing which made the search for JD even more unpleasant. "Where'd that little nitwit go?" Dr. Cox muttered, looking up and down the street. "Newbie?!" No response. "JD?!"

He didn't actually get a response, per se, instead he heard the distinct sounds of someone emptying their lunch onto the ground. "Dammit, Newbie."

Dr. Cox hurried to the alley and found JD with one arm holding him up against the wall while the other clutched his stomach painfully tight. He was now dry heaving so he must have emptied the contents of his stomach already.

"Alight, Claire, I think it's time we got you home," said Dr. Cox, making his was over to JD. "Apparently, the after prom was just too much for you." He tentatively set a hand on JD's shoulder. "Umm...are you okay?"

"I thin-think I drank-drank too much." JD was attacked by another set of dry heaves.

Dr. Cox shook his head as he waited for the fit to pass. _"Yah think...No wait...that's okay to say aloud. Say it!" _Dr. Cox helped him stand up straight. "Yah think?" He took a deep breath as he tried to help JD walk. "Who's at your apartment? I don't want you going comatose and no one knowing."

JD shook his head. "No one. Carla and Turk are bo-both work-k-king tonight." JD tripped over his own feet and almost fell flat on his face except Dr. Cox grabbed hold of him.

"Good God, Dora! Can't you hold your liquor?" Despite his annoyed tone, Dr. Cox slipped JD's arm around his shoulders and helped him back over to the Porsche. He deposited JD in the passenger's seat and quickly hooked him in. "Something tells me I am so going to regret this tomorrow," muttered Dr. Cox as he went around to the driver's side. After getting in, Dr. Cox looked at JD and saw he his head lolling to the side; it was only a few seconds later before he fell asleep. _"Dammit, Cox! Why __couldn't you have just let him mope in peace?!"_

The drive to his apartment was awkward at best. Dr. Cox kept glancing nervously at JD, hoping that he wouldn't wake up during the drive. _"God, why did Carla and Turtle-head have to be working tonight?"_

Dr. Cox breathed a huge sigh of relief when he finally reached his apartment. He parked his car and went around to pull JD from the passenger's seat. Dr. Cox's grip on him woke him up a bit, and he stumbled along next the older doctor as they made their way up to the apartment. It took a lot of maneuvering, but Dr. Cox managed to unlock the door and get inside without dropping the half-conscious JD on the floor. Once inside, Dr. Cox deposited JD on the couch and then hurried to his cleaning closet and grabbed a bucket. He set it next to the couch, where JD had already laid down, and shook his head at JD. He was about to go to his own room when JD's voice stopped him.

"Dr-Dr. C-Cox?"

"What now, Gina?"

"I-I car-care about-about you. I real-really do-do."

Dr. Cox gritted his teeth. He didn't want to deal with this; he really didn't. "I heard, Newbie. Get some rest." JD stared at him for a moment with huge eyes. Dr. Cox knew he was trying to stay awake, but he quickly lost the battle. JD's eyes drooped shut, and he fell asleep on the couch. Dr. Cox started toward his own bedroom when the guilt, and some other feeling he couldn't identify, he usually tried so hard to bury deep where not even Jordan's claws could dig it out suddenly started eating at him.

"Dammit, Newbie!" Dr. Cox turned back around and planted himself in the armchair next to the couch. _"Should have gone bowling."_

XVIIIIV

The first thing JD noticed when he woke up was the terrible throbbing in his head. The second thing he noticed was the horrible nausea taking hold of him. The third was the feel of someone's hands grabbing hold of his shoulders and a bucket being shoved under his face.

"Stacy, if you so much as get a drop of vomit on my floor you will not live through your hangover."

_That's Dr. Cox's voice...Did I die or something? Maybe I'm in a parallel universe...Oh God! My Stomach!_

JD threw up again into the bucket and then leaned back against the couch. "Um...Dr. Cox...how did I end up here?"

"Well, Newbie, you decided that instead of excepting that Miss William's death was out of your control, you wanted to try and drink some sense into yourself. It didn't really work."

JD groaned. "My head hurts."

"Drinking does that, especially to young girls when they know they can't hold their liquor."

_Girl jokes, and I've only been conscious for two minutes._ JD sat up all the way. "What did I do?"

"Drank, blubbered, drank some more. Then you puked. You see normally I only get to see you act stupid, but seeing you act stupid _and_ drunk...well that was a real treat."

Dr. Cox left the living room for a moment and came back carrying what looked like the top to mouth wash. "I suggest you swish this, Newbie, especially if you're worried about morning breath."

JD took the cup and swished the liquid around in his mouth. He spit it out in the bucket and handed the cup back to Dr. Cox, glad that the puke taste was out of his mouth. "What time is it?" asked JD, leaning his head back again.

"Two in the morning."

"Sorry about all this."

"Well, if only sorry could get me last night back."

JD felt guilty and looked down at his hands. Dr. Cox immediately regretted his words even if he didn't show it on the outside. "Look, Newbie...you...uh...said some things tonight."

_Crap! What did I say?! I hope I didn't say what I think I said. Maybe I told him I still watch Disney movies. No...wait! I think he already knows that. Crap! What did I say?!_

"Um...Dr. Cox...what did I say?" Dr. Cox stared. _Crap!_

XVIIIIV

_"Crap! What do I tell Newbie? How exactly do I phase "You told me that you cared for me a lot, and I kind of feel the same" without sounding like a complete girl. Think, Perry, think!"_

Without warning, Dr. Cox crossed the living and captured JD's lips with his own. The kiss somehow managed to be quick, deep, and meaningful all at the same time. Dr. Cox pulled back slowly and looked down at JD. "Um...does that tell you, Newbie?"

JD nodded although Dr. Cox's hand was still on the side of his face. "It also kind of explains the mouthwash."

Dr. Cox laughed and then quickly stood back up as if realizing what he'd just done. He felt like he should be panicking, but instead he felt good...really good. While he was on his own cloud nine, he noticed that JD didn't look so good. His face had turned very pale and his eyes were watery.

"Jamie, you alright?"

"Um...please don't think this had anything to do with the kiss, but I think I'm gonna throw up."

Dr. Cox rushed forward, grabbing the bucket, and stuck it under JD's face. He grabbed hold of the kid's shoulder with one hand while holding the bucket with the other. JD managed to throw up even more, despite the puking from earlier, and eventually leaned back on the couch.

"You want some more mouthwash?" asked Dr. Cox, setting the bucket far away from both of them; JD nodded weakly. Dr. Cox went and got another cap full of mouthwash and handed it to JD. This time after swishing it, JD just swallowed it. "Bad Newbie! You know you shouldn't swallow that! Here I thought you were a doctor."

JD shook his head. "Don't really care." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Dr. Cox sighed. "Come on, Newbie." He bent down and slid his arms around JD's chest; with quite a bit of effort considering JD was almost dead weight, Dr. Cox lifted him off the couch and stumbled along with him to the bedroom. With an abnormal amount of care, Dr. Cox laid JD on the bed. He took off JD's shoes and studied his charge for a moment. With a shrug of his shoulders, Dr. Cox kicked off his own shoes and crawled into the bed next to JD.

XVIIIIV

JD woke up confused. Well, more than confused. For one thing, he was not in his own bed; he could tell by the sheets he was laying on. He tried to recall what had happened, but his head was throbbing, and he was having trouble figuring out how he got into some strange bed. It was then that he noticed he was not alone in the bed he was in.

Slowly, as to not aggravate his throbbing head, JD sat up and looked around. He was shocked to see Dr. Cox laying next to him, and suddenly everything came back to him: the bar, his hangover, and the fact that Dr. Cox had kissed him.

_Dr. Cox kissed me! He kissed me! That's great! Wait, we're in bed; what did we do? _JD looked at Dr. Cox and saw he was still fully dressed and then noticed he was too. _Okay, fully dressed. Couldn't have done much._ Suddenly, JD noticed that Dr. Cox was slowly waking up; he suddenly wanted to be very far away from the apartment in case Dr. Cox wasn't as happy about last night as he was. _He's waking up! Crap! I need to go!_

JD was about to spring from the bed, but an arm on his shoulder stopped him. "Where are you going, Newbie?" asked Dr. Cox's quiet voice.

"Um...Dr. Cox...about last night...you see-"

Before JD could finish, Dr. Cox had managed to push him back on the bed and capture his lips with his own again. JD's mind screamed at him for a moment to stop, but he quickly silenced it by sliding his arms around Dr. Cox's waist. He was a little surprised when Dr. Cox slipped his tongue into his mouth, but he quickly gave in. Dr. Cox's own hands had moved from the gentle hold on his face to slip beneath his shirt. JD moaned and arched up into the touch. The kissing continued for another few minutes, but Dr. Cox finally pulled back.

"That explain some things, Newbie?"

JD nodded, but then shook his head. "What about Jordan? I mean everyone knows that you and her get back together every other week."

"Newbie-"

"I don't really want to be just some toy while you're waiting for her to come back."

"Newbie-"

"I mean...I know that I don't exactly have a great track record with my own relationships, but that doesn't mean I don't want them to work out."

"Susan!?"

"I really don't want you just to mess with me, Dr.-"

JD was cut off when Dr. Cox kissed him again, but this one was gentle and lasted for at least twenty seconds. "Newbie, you're starting to sound like your whiny psychotic friend complaining about her relationships, and trust me, I don't want to think about Dr. Barbie right now; her ass is nowhere as nice as yours."

"But-" _He thinks I have a nice ass! _"Wait, you think I have a nice ass?"

XVIIIIV

_"Shit! I said that aloud! Man, I am not gonna get through this conversation if I'm thinking about Newbie's ass. Shit! I did it again! I thought I got rid of those thoughts months ago!"_

"Newbie-"

"Dr. Cox, I really don't want this to be some weird fling for you."

Dr. Cox sighed. "Newbie, while you were...unconscious...I did some thinking. I can't promise I can make this work, you know that, but I can try. I'm not gonna be this great man, but I really do...like you, Newbie." Dr. Cox couldn't help but think he sounded like a girl. "I'm willing to give this a try."

JD was quiet for a minute. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you felt this for me?"

"God, Missy, you are a girl. Awhile, okay?"

"How long's awhile?"

"The past few months or so...you were just so damn persistent on not leaving me alone that...you just kind of grew on me, and-I don't know-before I knew it I just kind of...liked you."

"You sure got a way with words."

"Newbie..."

"Can I call you Perry?"

Dr. Cox sighed. "Outside the hospital."

"Will you call me JD?"

"When I'm feeling generous."

"Will you eat in the cafeteria with me?"

"What is this? High school?"

"Can I tell my friends?"

"Jeez, Newbie, let's try and make it through today first..." He saw the somewhat hurt look on JD's face. "Eventually, but not yet."

There was a long silence. "Are you sure about this...P-Perry?"

The way JD used his name so tentatively made Dr. Cox smile. "Newbie, the fact I haven't strangled you for being just plain annoying and throwing up in my living room should be sign enough that I'm pretty sure about this."

JD smiled. "Okay." Hesitantly, JD leaned up and gave Dr. Cox a light kiss.

"Girl," murmured Dr. Cox with a smile. He looked up at the clock beside the bed and saw it was six in the morning; his shift started at two pm that day. He needed to get some more sleep if he was going to survive a day of interns and the start of a relationship of the most annoying yet somehow irresistible person he'd ever met.

"Get some sleep. You've got a shift today, too."

JD nodded, and Dr. Cox slowly got back to his own side of the bed. For a moment, Dr. Cox laid there, but then slowly rolled over and slid an arm around JD's waist. "Um...you okay...JD?" It was weird to say it, but it also felt good.

"Yeah." The younger doctor nodded. "I'm okay." JD moved more into the embrace and quickly fell asleep.

**TBC  
**


	2. Chapter II

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: I'm glad people seemed to like the first chapter, and I would like to respond to what someone wrote (it was not a flame). JD/Perry is not something I can really imagine taking place, and on the show, I love Perry and Jordan as a couple, but this story is for my own amusement so I decided to play around. The next chapter should be up by Friday. **ANYONE WANT TO BETA?**

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter II

"_Time will heal, bruises fade. Life will change will change the plans we made. If we the truth and be our best, there's no need to worry about the rest." MXPX "My Mistake."_

As JD walked up to the hospital, he felt good. Sure, his head still pounded with a horrible headache, but he'd finally managed to get through to Dr. Cox and show the man he cared. It had happened a little differently than expected; JD didn't picture himself confessing his feelings to Dr. Cox while drunk in a bar, nor did he imagine Dr. Cox actually caring for him back in the same way, but things had worked out. Not only that, he was in a relationship with him, which is what he'd always wanted, not that he would have told anyone. JD stopped suddenly.

_Crap! What am I gonna tell Turk? I'm eventually going to tell him that I'm gay. Wait. Am I gay? Let's see: Elliot in her bra...nice. Dr. Cox in a bra-I mean boxers...nice. Jordan in...scary. Maybe I'm bi...God...I'll sort it later. I've got to get into-_

"Are you Dr. Dorian?"

A voice behind him startled him and JD turned around quickly; he saw a man in ripped up jeans and a huge sweatshirt staring at him. "Um...yeah...I'm Dr. Dorian." He put out his hand, and the man shook it. "Who are you?"

"I'm John Williams; I was called yesterday after my mother died."

"Your mother?"

"Darla Williams?"

"Your mother was Darla Williams; we didn't think she had any family. We searched, but we couldn't find anyone."

"Mom wasn't very open about her personal life; she didn't even tell my brother and I who our father was until after we graduated high school. Turns out he lived in the same town we did."

_Strange...Miss Williams didn't seem this odd._ "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Just as well. He was in prison anyway."

_Okay...just got stranger. I can't really imagine Miss Williams with a con._ For a moment, JD imagined the older woman riding along in an old forties car, shooting a gun out the window, while a man covered in tattoos drives. JD shook his head. "Um...I kind of need to get to work."

"Please, I just need a bit of your time. You were my mom's doctor, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Can I just talk to you for a few minutes? Please? I just want to know how her last days were."

JD looked between the man and the hospital, and then decided to follow the man. "I can talk to you for just a few minutes, but then I need to get to work."

"Great. I saw a bench just over here, I've kind of got a bad leg."

JD shrugged his shoulders and followed the man. _I wonder if Perry-I mean Dr. Cox will let this slide considering what happened last night. He didn't seem pissed when he dropped me back off at my apartment...Oh man...this is a bad idea. I know it!_

"Dr. Dorian!"

JD startled out of his thoughts and looked over at Darla William's son. "Sorry, I kind of spaced." He looked around. "Um...I don't think there is a bench around here." JD scanned the area and saw they were in the loading area near back. He turned back to John Williams, but only for a second because a tire iron suddenly came swinging at his head.

_Shit!_ _Perry is gonna be piss-_ Darkness consumed JD's vision, and he slumped to the ground unconscious.

XVIIIIV

John Williams stared at the young doctor lying unconscious on the ground. He felt a little bit of remorse, but not enough to stop him from what he was doing. The sliding door of the van behind him suddenly opened, and his younger brother Lucas stepped out into the parking lot.

"John? Are you sure about this?"

"You heard what that nurse said. This bastard let our mom die; we can't let him get away with it."

"The nurse said that her doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. They did a whole bunch-"

"Lucas! Mom is dead! This guy could have stopped it. Now, help me get him into the van!"

Lucas swallowed hard and jumped down from the van. He took hold of the doctor's legs while his brother took the shoulders. Lucas felt a little nauseous when he saw the doctor's head just fall back, but he held his lunch down. Throwing the doctor into the van, Lucas and John steeled themselves for what they were doing. After shutting the side door, the two brothers got into the van and left the hospital.

XVIIIIV

Perry hadn't had a good day; his patients seemed to have a need to do nothing but annoy him, every doctor in the placed seemed to want to do the same, and to top it all off he hadn't actually seen JD all day. He couldn't help but wonder if JD was avoiding him after last night; he thought everything had been sorted out the night before, but maybe he was wrong. As he approached the nurses' station, he couldn't help but notice that he was a little bit angrier when he saw that JD was not gabbing with his peons there.

"Oh look...if it isn't the Spice Girls...are you guys gearing up for your next tour? But wait there's only three of you. Where's the rest of the group? Satan Spice and Girly Spice?"

Carla, Turk, and Elliot all looked up as Perry approached the nurses' station. "Perry, you seem more pissy than usual," said Carla with a smirk.

"Oh...good come back, Latina Spice." Carla glared at him. "I mean Carla. I _must_ be more irritated than usual by the idiots roaming these halls if you said that."

Elliot stepped in. "Dr. Cox, I have-"

"I was including you in that statement, Barbie Spice."

"But Dr. Cox-"

"Up-bup-bup-bup..." Elliot stopped. "Don't care."

Elliot swallowed hard and started to walk away. "I'm pretty sure someone else I made cry is already moping in the supply closet so you'll just have to go somewhere else!" Perry shouted after her.

Elliot paused for a second and then took off in a different direction. Perry smirked and then turned back to the nurses' station.

"What's your problem?" asked Turk.

"Well, I'll tell you, Bald Spice, I have been looking all over this Hell hole for Girly Spice, but I just can't seem to find him. Do you know where he's applying his eyeliner?"

Turk looked toward Carl. "Girly Spice?"

"I'm guessing he means Bambi."

"Yes," said Perry; his patience was wearing very thin. "Now have you seen him?!"

Turk and Carla both shrugged. "He came back to the apartment this afternoon, he was gone all night, and got ready for work," Turk said. "Didn't really say much."

Perry couldn't resist the urge. "Not that I care, but where was he?" Turk stared at him. "Don't looked so shocked. I just need to know if I'm putting patients in danger if I stick them with him." He knew JD would never actually put a patient in danger, but he needed an excuse to see what Carla and Turk thought about JD being gone the night before.

"Probably hooked up with some guy-" Turk was cut off by Carla punching him in the arm. "Oh shit! Dr. Cox, I know you don't have a soul to appeal to, but you cannot tell JD I said that! Please!"

Perry shook his head, not really caring. "So neither of you have seen Newbie?"

Carla and Turk both shook their heads, and Perry grumbled as he walked away from the nurses' station. As he did, he heard Turk pleading with Carla. "I'm sorry, baby, it just slipped..."

_"Dammit, Newbie! Where are you? I swear to God if you are avoiding me I will kill you...as soon as I find you."_

As he walked down the hall, Dr. Kelso tried to stop him to speak to him, but Perry was not in the mood. "Don't have the time, Old Spice." He held up his hand to stop the older doctor from actually speaking to him. He was far too determined in his search for JD.

XVIIIIV

"I'm really starting to get worried," Turk said as he leaned on the nurses' station. "I haven't actually seen JD since I got to work, and normally we've hung out at least once by now. Besides, it's Strawberry Milk Day, and JD loves Strawberry Milk Day."

"I'm sure Bambi is around here somewhere. Maybe he made Dr. Cox mad, and he's hiding from him."

"I don't know. I've looked in all his hiding spots."

"He's probably around here somewhere." Carla suddenly pinched the arm Turk had resting on the nurses' station.

"Ow! Why'd you'd do that?!"

"I can't believe you said that to Dr. Cox!"

"Carla! I'm sorry! It slipped." Carla crossed her arms and glared at him. "You know I don't care if JD is into guys!"

"You'd just better hope that Dr. Cox doesn't get mad and say it to Bambi."

Turk grabbed hold of Carla's hands and looked her in the eyes. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I really am. I did not mean for that to come out."

Carla smiled and started to lean forward; Turk followed suit, ready for a kiss, but another pinch brought him out of it. "Tell that to Bambi." Carla gathered some charts and left the station. "Now, I'm gonna go try and talk to Dr. Cox."

Turk shook his head and out of no where the Todd came up and raised his hand to Turk. "Rejected Five!"

Turk stared at the Todd as the eager surgeon waited for the high five. "No, Todd." Turk shook his head and followed after Carla.

XVIIIIV

_"When I find Newbie I am going to kill him," _Perry thought as he stalked down the hallway. A young intern had just walked out into the hall, looking over a chart, but when the young doctor saw Perry, she turned right back around and rushed into the patient's room. _"I can't believe this! I can understand Celeste being nervous about all this...God, he's not the one who will have to deal with Jordan sinking her claws into him to try and rip out his soul. Man, what horrific curse will she put on me once she finds out."_

Perry stopped suddenly in the hallway and let out a groan of frustration.

"What's wrong, Perry?" asked Dr. Kelso with a smirk as he approached the very angry looking doctor.

"Just the fact you're talking to me, Bobbo, is problem enough."

"Well, I've got something that may get your mind off your problems. I've got a lovely woman in room 478 who-"

"You know what, Beelzebob, how little I care which board member's second cousin needs help diagnosing a cough is in that room is actually amazing even me. So..." Perry grabbed the intern who'd just ducked into the patient's (they were brave enough to come back out) and shoved her toward Dr. Kelso. "I'm sure Dr..." Perry looked at the intern. "What's your name?"

"Dr.-Dr. Kirby."

"Really? Kirby?" The intern nodded. "Whatever. Dr. Kirby can help you."

Before Dr. Kelso could say anything else, Perry stormed off down the hall; he was still trying to sort out the JD situation. _"God, what did I do? Man, now I'm starting to sound like Newbie; I'm being a girl! Gotta think manly, okay. Got hockey, got football, got...I need a scotch." _Perry sighed. _"I am gonna kill Newbie!"_

XVIIIIV

Lucas Williams stared down at the doctor laying unconscious in the back of the van and tried to fight the guilt he was feeling. Earlier, the doctor had started waking up, and John began to panic. They weren't at their "destination" yet, Lucas still didn't know where they were going, and the doctor could not be awake. In a fit of panic, John had knocked him out again.

Right now, they were stopped in a small city in northern California, and John was hurrying around the town picking up supplies. Then they were supposed to continue on their way.

"I can't do this," Lucas suddenly muttered to himself. He knelt down and gently took hold of the doctor's shoulders. He groaned softly but did not regain consciousness. "Come on," Lucas muttered, getting the man across his shoulders. Sliding open the door of the van, Lucas carried the man out; he was very glad at the moment that his brother had parked in an alley.

_"Where can I take this guy?"_ Lucas asked himself, stumbling along with the doctor. He was trying to remember the places he had passed in town and suddenly remembered a clinic right up the street. Lucas pushed himself and seemed to make it to the clinic in record time.

Feeling bad as he did it, Lucas set the unconscious doctor by the back door. Lucas sighed and leaned down again. "Sorry, but I can't have people knowing you're a doctor; I gotta protect my brother and me." Very glad that the doctor had a undershirt on, Lucas pulled the scrub top off the doctor, but in a fit of sympathy, he pulled off his own sweatshirt and slipped it onto the doctor. Debating with himself for several seconds, Lucas leaned back down and pulled the scrub pants off the doctor, feeling both bad and awkward for leaving the doctor there in a sweatshirt and boxers.

"Sorry, Doc," said Lucas quietly, gathering the scrubs in his arms. "Real sorry." With a sigh, Lucas turned around and headed back to the van. If luck was on his side, John wouldn't check on the doctor when he came back to the van, and at the next stop, Lucas could tell John that the doctor must have escaped. Lucas swallowed hard as continued back toward the van.

XVIIIIV

Turk and Carla were both surprised to come back to an empty apartment after their shifts. They'd been hoping that JD would be back at the apartment when they got home since no matter where they looked they could not find him at the hospital.

"Have you tried his phone, baby?" asked Carla, after checking JD's bedroom to see if he was there.

"Yeah, I did, but he didn't answer it. Besides, he never answers that thing when he's at work."

"Why don't you try it again?"

Turk nodded and pulled out his cellphone. He waited while it rang, hoping that each ring would be interrupted by his friend's voice; no one answered, and the call eventually went to JD's voicemail.

"Dammit," said Turk, angrily pressing the end button. "He's not answering."

Turk sat down on the couch and ran a tired hand over his face. Carla sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you think he's where he was last night?"

"I don't know. I don't even know where he was last night." Turk sighed. "He was upset about his patient, Miss Williams, death. I knew he was bummed about it, and I even asked him if he wanted to go grab a few beers, but he told me he'd rather be alone."

"I'm sure he's fine, baby."

"Yeah." Turk leaned back on the couch. "I'm just worried. JD's never been one to just disappear; sure, he'll hide somewhere in the hospital for awhile, but just plain disappearing isn't like him."

Carla rubbed his shoulder. "We'll call him again later. If he still doesn't answer, we'll wait till tomorrow, and if he's still not back, we'll call the police."

"The police?"

Carla shrugged her shoulders. "It's just a precaution. I'm sure Bambi will be back by tomorrow. I'll be surprised if he isn't back by tonight."

Turk looked at Carla, and she gave him an encouraging smile; he did his best to return. Carla wished she felt half as confident as she had sounded with Turk, but the truth was, she was scared. This wasn't like her Bambi; he may act like a child sometimes, but he was still responsible...well...most the time. _"JD, I don't know where you are, but if you aren't seriously hurt, I'm gonna kill you...making us worry like this."_

XVIIIIV

Steven hated his life; he really did. He was walking to the clinic where his girlfriend, well now ex-girlfriend, worked as a nurse, and he was planning on begging her to let him back into their apartment so he could gather a few of his things. Steven knew that if he went to the front door, the receptionist (his ex-girlfriend's best friend), would stop him, but if he went to the back door, the clinic's main doctor (one of his friend's) would gladly let him in.

As Steven walked down the alleyway leading to the clinic's back door, he thought about what brought about the end of this relationship. He'd come home from his job at Gamestop and found her in bed with their landlord. She'd been trying to get their contract for their apartment changed; she'd wanted Steven out of their lease, and thanks to the deal she's worked out with their landlord, Steven was now officially out of the lease, and consequently out of the apartment.

Watching his feet as he walked, Steven made it all the way to the back door before he noticed anything amiss with the scene. Looking up, Steven spotted a lanky figure propped up against the brick wall of the clinic dressed in socks, boxers, and a hooded sweatshirt, not exactly the best clothing for fall. Steven looked around for a minute, hoping to spot someone who could explain this to him, but no one was in sight. Kneeling down next to the guy, Steven gave him a quick once over, dating a nurse had been good for something; there was a cut above his left temple and dried blood across his forehead. Above the cut was some heavy bruising.

"Jeez," muttered Steven. "What happened to you?" He tentatively reached forward and gently shook the guy's shoulder; the guy groaned but didn't wake up. "I gotta get you help."

Steven stood back up and knocked loudly on the back door of the clinic. "Come on, Ryan," he muttered as he pounded on the door. "Come on!"

It opened suddenly, and Steven almost ended up knocking on the face of his ex-girlfriend.

"Steven, what are you doing here?" she asked coldly.

"Well, Katie, I was gonna come here and beg you to let me into the apartment so I could the rest of _my_ things, but...um..." Steven looked to the left where the guy was lying. "There's a guy unconscious out here."

Katie looked toward where Steven was looking, and her eyes widened in shock. "Dr. Gray! Get out here fast!" She knelt down next to the guy and started her own examination of the man. She checked his pulse and breathing and then laid him flat on the ground. When she moved him, the guy began waking up. "Sir," said Katie. "Sir, can you hear me? Sir?"

The guy groaned and his head lolled to the side. Ryan Gray, the doctor Katie had been calling and Steven's friend, came running out into the alley. "What's going on?"

"Steven found this guy out here," explained Katie. "He was unconscious, but he seems to be waking up. Steady heartbeat, breathing is good, there doesn't seem to be any bruising on his chest or abdomen, but there seems to be some major head trauma." Katie looked up from the guy. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"No," said Ryan, taking a penlight from his pocket and pulling the guy's eyelids back. "His pupils are reactive and everything." The guy's eyes opened and stared up at the people around him. "Sir, can you tell me what happened?"

The guy closed his eyes for a second and then replied. "No. I-I don't remember."

Ryan nodded and then turned to Katie and another nurse who'd come outside. "Let's get him inside to X-rays. I want to make sure there is no brain damage or anything." He turned back to the guy on the ground. "Can you tell me your name, sir?"

Once again, the guy closed his eyes again to think, but when he opened them again, he looked more confused than before. "I don't-don't...know."

**TBC**


	3. Chapter III

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'd like to thank my beta Wolfie for making sure everyone was in character. Most of this story is written (except for the last chapter and a half), so updates shouldn't be more than a few days apart now. The next chapter should be up no later than Monday.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter III

"_Be nice to everyone...They're fighting a battle you know nothing about." _

"So..." said Steven, who was standing next to Katie waiting for some news on the guy from the alley. "Any chance I can come to the apartment and get the rest of my things?"

"No," replied Katie, taking that moment to inspect her fingernails.

"But some of my stuff is still there. Half my games are still in the back closet. I want those games!"

"No, Steven."

"Just let me come by and get my stuff...or..."

"Or what?"

"I'll annoy you until you do. I will purposely injure myself everyday and come here to bother you while I'm being patched up until you let me get my stuff!"

Katie sighed. "Since you are as pathetic as you are, I wouldn't put it past you." She paused for a moment and stared at him. "You can come by on Friday and get your things."

"Great."

A few minutes later, Ryan came out of the exam room they'd taken the guy from the alley. "What's wrong with him?" asked Katie.

"Physically, he seems okay. There's no brain damage or swelling, but he may have a slight concussion; that shouldn't cause more than maybe a little dizziness and a headache or two. The cut didn't require any stitches, just a couple of butterfly bandages. One problem, he seems to have post-traumatic amnesia."

"Post-traumatic?" said Steven; he knew what amnesia was, but "post-traumatic" was lost on him.

"It happens do to a head injury. Retrograde, unfortunately."

"Ryan, I work at Gamestop; I don't know this stuff."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Two types of amnesia: anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde means that a person suffers basically from short term memory, new memories won't get transferred to the permanent long-term memory. Retrograde means that a person cannot recall a memory or some memories of the past. It seems, unfortunately for this guy, those memories are all of them. It's not common, but it happens."

"She's right. The guy can't seem to remember a thing." He looked between Katie and Steven. "Um...if you don't mind, I kinda need to talk to Katie alone for a few minutes."

Steven nodded and watched as Katie and Ryan walked off, talking quietly and seriously to each other. Steven watched until they rounded the corner and then slipped into the patient's exam room. The guy was sitting on the bed in the same sweatshirt he'd been found in, but Ryan had given him a pair of sweats that he kept here in case of emergencies. The guy's head was patched, and he was tentatively touching the bruise on his head with one hand. The other hand was playing with an Ninja Turtle action figure that Steven knew Ryan kept for little kids. The guy looked suddenly as Steven entered the room.

"Are you...are you a doctor?" the guy asked, looking at Steven's Gamestop uniform; he tossed the action figure over to the counter.

"Oh..no. I'm the guy who...um...found you. You don't remember anything?" The guy shook his head. "Damn."

"Um...do you know why I was in my underwear?" asked the guy.

Ryan shook his head. "I just found you; I didn't do anything else."

As Steven finishing up his sentence, Ryan and Katie reentered. Katie shook her head when she saw Steven. "What are you doing in here?"

"I thought I was a patient," said the guy from the alley.

"Not you," said Katie; she pointed to Steven. "Him."

Steven shrugged. "I was just keeping the guy company."

"Calm down, Katie," said Ryan, putting his hand on her shoulder. He turned toward the guy. "Look, as I said before, you have amnesia, any hospital will tell you the same, but I can take you to one if you really want to go. Your head injuries aren't that bad, but they were enough to land you with a slight concussion and the amnesia. Without insurance or indication of who you are, a hospital can't really do anything for you."

The guy shrugged. "I don't-I don't really want to go to the hospital."

Ryan nodded in understanding. "What we should concern ourselves with now is finding you a place to stay."

Steven's head perked up, and he seemed to speak before his mind could catch him. "He can stay with me."

Katie, Ryan, and the guy all looked to Steven. "Do you even have a place to stay?" asked Katie, crossing her arms; a knowing smirk came to her face.

"Of course I have a place to stay." The smirk left Katie's face.

Ryan shrugged his shoulders. "That's about as good as any place I can come up with." He looked to the patient and set a hand on Steven's shoulder. "Steven is probably one of the most trustworthy people I have ever met; you'll be perfectly fine with him."

The guy nodded slowly. "I guess...I don't really have any other options."

"Well, okay then. I'm gonna go set you up with a prescription for painkillers. Steven, if I remember from your last birthday party, you know how to do deal with a concussion."

Steven turned red. "Falling off a bar can happen to anyone."

"I'll be back," said Ryan. He and Katie both left the room.

"So," the guy said quietly, "I'm gonna be staying with you?"

"Yep." Steven turned toward the guy. "As you heard, I'm Steven." He extended his hand, and the guy shook it.

"I'm..." The guy shrugged. "Insert Name Here."

"How about Jim?"

"What?"

"You said "insert name here," I inserted the name Jim."

The guy shrugged. "I guess Jim it is." He didn't look entirely happy with the name.

Steven smiled.

"So, do you have a place to stay?" asked the guy nervously.

"Yeah." Steven nodded. "Kinda. Don't worry. I've got it all worked out."

XVIIIIV

As Perry stalked down the hallway, anger bubbled inside of him. He tried calling JD, as weird as it had felt, but the kid hadn't answered the phone. He'd checked the kid's schedule when he got to work and found that he indeed had a shift today; he was gonna be there when JD showed up because that kid had a lot of explaining to do.

_"Why is this making me so mad?"_ Perry thought to himself. _"What? Two days ago, I couldn't __stand to be around the kid for longer than five minutes, and now I'm freaking out because I haven't seen him in a day. Snap out of it, Perry. Newbie is the one who acts like a girl not you."_

He grabbed a stack of patient's cases off the top of the nurses' station, not even wanting to talk to anyone do to the mood he was in; he didn't even have the energy to tear apart someone's confidence, and that was saying something. As Perry was about to walk away and go take care of his first patient, he saw the look on Carla's face. Letting out a deep sigh, Perry turned back toward her.

"I know you know how little I actually care about your personal problems, but what seems to be bringing you down?" He gave a fake sad face and stuck out his bottom lip; he actually felt a little better making fun of someone, even if it was Carla, and she could put him in his place.

Carla looked up at him and rolled her eyes. "I'm really not in the mood."

"Did turtle head dress you in your underwear again; You know it's not my fault you're dating a moron."

Carla leaned back and crossed her arms. "Turk didn't do anything." She paused for a moment and straightened a stack of papers on the desk as means of distraction. She finally spoke again. "You haven't...um...seen JD yet today, have you?"

Perry felt his stomach drop. _"Two of Newbies little girlfriends haven't even seen him. Dammit! Where is he?"_

"No." Perry shook his head. "I haven't seen Priscilla." He was about to turn and walk away, to try and cover his concern for JD and to get away from having to talk to someone, when he saw Turk walking up to the station; this was not going to be good if he started talking to him, because Perry was not in the mood.

"I have asked everyone, baby, even that janitor, who JD says is always torturing him, hasn't seen him."

"No one?"

"No one saw him come in."

"What about outside?"

"Wait," said Perry suddenly. "Doesn't Ruby live with you guys?"

"Yeah," said Carla, nodding slowly like Perry had asked a stupid question.

"Didn't your little runaway come home last night, begging for some hot chocolate and his bed back?"

"JD didn't come back at all last night," said Turk.

"What?"

"We haven't even been able to reach him on his phone," said Carla.

Perry didn't even know what to say. No one had seen JD, which made him incredibly worried, but it was good to know that JD wasn't avoiding him. _"God, JD could be missing, and I'm just happy he's not avoiding me. I'm so fucking warped; Jordan must have worn off on me."_

Perry was about to ask Turk and Carla another question when the doctor from the morgue came running up to the station.

"Turk?!"

"What's the matter, Nervous Guy?" In the two years that kid had been at the hospital, Perry still couldn't recall his actual name; it didn't help he spent almost all his time down in the morgue. "One of the bodies in the morgue come back to life?"

Nervous Guy suddenly turned very pale. "They-they can-can do that. Oh...I ne-need to get back to-to the morg-morgue."

"Doug," said Carla, putting her arm on Doug's shoulder to stop him from running back to the morgue. She knew it was part from the irrational fear of zombies in the lab and the fact Dr. Cox was standing less than twenty feet from him. "Did you have something to tell us?"

"Um...yeah...you see...I did see JD-JD yesterday." Doug looked out of the corner of his eye nervously at Perry who'd crossed his arms and began leaning against the wall; he seemed to be listening intently. "He was outside the hos-hospital; he was talk-talking to som-some guy."

Turk stared at Doug. "You didn't think to mention this earlier?"

"Well, you asked I had seen him in the hospital," said Doug. "I-I didn't see him in the hospital. He-he was outside." He glanced at Perry who still had his arms crossed. "I...um...think I'm go-going to get-get going." Doug was about to turn around and run when Carla grabbed hold of his arm again.

"Did you know who he was talking to?" asked Carla.

Doug shook his head. "No. Not anyone I knew; I don't think he worked here, of course, I don-don't get out of the morg-morgue much."

"What did he look like?"

Doug shrugged. "Li-like a guy." Doug swallowed hard, still looking nervously at Perry. "I'm-I'm gonna go." He turned around and all but ran down the hallway away from the the three of them.

XVIIIIV

_This has to be dangerous. I have no idea who the hell I am, where the hell I am, and I am going to stay with a complete stranger. Hell! All I know about this guy is that his name is Steven, and he works at...wait...what did his uniform say..._He took a quick glance at Steven's uniform. _He works at Gamestop! I wonder if he's got any cool games! Wait! I need to be concerned with the fact that this guy could be some crazy who likes to take care of people who have no idea who they are. He also likes to name them stupid things...like Jim. I am not going to be called Jim until I get my memory back! Man, I really should be more concerned about getting my memory back._

He looked at the man walking next to him; Steven was beginning to look very nervous as they walked down the sidewalk.

"Um...earlier you said that you 'kinda have a place to stay,'" said the guy. "Wha-what exactly did you mean?"

"Well," said Steve slowly, "you see...I just recently got kicked out of my apartment thanks to my girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend really. You met her: Katie, the nurse. I was staying with friends, but I have...I have a new place to stay though. It's...um...right up the block here actually."

The guy looked up the sidewalk and saw an old brick apartment building on the corner; it was pretty small, only three stories, but judging by the five cars parked up the street, the place was probably full. "Is this your place?"

"No...not exactly, but I have a key." The guy looked at Steven as he whipped a bronze key from his pocket.

_For some reason, that key doesn't make me feel any better._

XVIIIIV

"I just don't believe this," said Turk. "How can JD just have disappeared? Something...something has to be wrong."

Carla nodded in agreement. Both of them had gotten off of work just an hour before (they always thought it was odd when their schedule worked out that way) and were waiting for an officer to arrive at their apartment. When she'd heard that no one at the hospital had seen JD at all the day before, except for Doug, she'd called the police to report him missing; they'd agreed to send an officer over to their house. Carla and Turk were now waiting impatiently for the officer to show.

"Where do you think he could be?" asked Turk softly; he was absently petting Rowdy which was next to the couch. "I'm beginning to think that Rowdy misses him."

Carla sighed. "Turk, it is a stuffed dog; it can't miss JD!"

"Carla...shhhh...you'll hurt Rowdy's feelings." Turk covered Rowdy's ears as if to protect the dog from hurt.

Shaking her head, Carla opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by a knock on the door. "Turk and Bambi and that stupid stuffed dog," Carla muttered as she went to answer the door. Turk stood up too and followed a few feet behind Carla to the door. She opened the door, and a female officer greeted them on the other side.

"Hello, I'm Officer Slaton," the woman said, sounding very official. "I'm here to file a missing persons report."

"Oh, yes," said Carla, opening the door wider so the officer could come in. "Come on in."

The officer walked into the apartment, pulling a notebook and pen from her jacket as she did so. "I'm going to need his name, age, and a description," said the officer. "And anything else you two think would be important to know. I'll also need to know the last time you saw him and if he's been acting strange lately."

"Okay," said Carla and Turk in unison; the officer looked at them strangely, and Carla tried to cover their awkward speaking in unison.

"You're welcome to have a seat," said Carla, giving the officer a nervous smile.

Officer Slaton nodded and took a seat on the couch; Carla sat down next to her while Turk sat on the arm. "Okay," said the officer. "First, can you give the missing person's name?"

"His name is Jonathan Dorian," said Carla.

"But everyone calls him JD," Turk added.

"Age?"

"28."

"What does he look like?"

"He's a little under 6 ft, dark brown hair, blue eyes," started Carla, but Turk jumped in.

"He's kinda awkwardish when he walks and stuff, tends to fall down-" Carla hit Turk on the arm to stop him from going on.

"Okay, what else can you tell me about JD?"

"He's a doctor, at Sacred Heart," said Carla. "A very good doctor, does anything he can for anyone."

"He drives a scooter," Turk added over the top of Carla's head.

"Alright, when was the last time you saw him?"

"I haven't seen him in two days," said Carla.

"I saw him for about twenty minutes the other afternoon. He was changing before work; I had to leave, and I planned on seeing him at work, it was Strawberry Milk Day, but I never saw him. I didn't see him at all today, and we tried calling his cellphone and paging him, but he never answered."

The officer stared at Turk for a moment, but then went back to her notebook. "Had he been acting strange?"

"Not really," said Carla with a shrug. "JD always acts strange."

"He was gone all the night before," Turk added again.

"Do you know where he was?"

Both Carla and Turk shook their heads.

"Has anyone see him?"

"The doctor who works in the morgue," Carla answered; Officer Slaton tilted her head obviously confused. "No...the doctor saw him talking to someone when he was walking into work, but no one saw JD after that."

"Do you know who the guy was?"

Carla and Turk shook their heads again.

"Well, I'll go back to the station and file this, but I'm not sure we can do much at this point. Without knowing what led up to all this or who he was talking to before he left, we don't have much to go on."

"Wait," said Turk. "Left?"

The officer nodded. "Most of the time with cases like these, the people leave on their own. I'll file the report, but you might want to give him a few more days to come back." The officer gave them both a nod as a way of saying goodbye; Carla saw her to the door.

"I don't care what she says," said Carla, clenching her teeth. "Bambi would never just leave like this." Turk nodded in agreement and reached down to pet Rowdy again.

XVIIIIV

The apartment Steven brought him to, using the key he'd pulled from his pocket, was a decent sized apartment with a lot of "decorative" clutter. The walls were covered with posters of everything from old 70's TV shows to video game characters. The windows were covered in long black sheer curtains, and a large television sat in the corner of the living room; a game console was hooked up to it. On the other side of the room, in what could only be described as an "office" area, a computer desk sat with more electronics piled on it than he'd ever seen.

"Um..." he said, turning toward Steven. "Who's place is this?"

Before Steven could give him an answer, the door of the apartment, and a young woman yelling into a cellphone walked in. Without looking up, she tossed what looked like a motorcycle helmet on the floor next to the door and shrugged off a backpack.

"I don't want to be transfered to another department...No, I'm not going to hold anymore...Fine! Report me...You still haven't fixed the problem I called about...How am I supposed to do my class if it won't show up...If you start crying...Well, thanks a lot." She angry flipped her cellphone shut and looked up at him and Steven.

"Harry!" Steven said, standing from the couch. He hurried over to hug her, but she turned her body away.

"Steven, what are you doing in my apartment?" she asked coldly.

"Is that anyway to greet your big brother?"

"I'm sorry. What the fuck are you doing in my apartment?"

Steven put his arms down abruptly. "I need a place to stay."

The girl raised her eyebrows and looked between Steven and him. She crossed her arms and tilted her head. "Well, that's just great, Steven! When I needed help from the family, you all but turned your back on me, but when you need help, it's okay for you to just waltz right into my apartment...How did you get in here?!"

"Um...that's not important. Please, Harry, I'm begging to your halfway human side! I need a place to stay!"

Harry raised her eyebrows again. "Who's the guy on the couch?"

Steven looked over his shoulder. "He...He kinda needs to stay here too."

The girl threw her arms up in the air. "I am not a hotel!"

"Please, the guy has amnesia!"

The girl turned back toward Steven and then looked over at the guy on the couch, who was gingerly touching a bruise on his forehead. "Amnesia?" Steven and the guy on the couch nodded slowly in unison; the girl shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as if she had a headache. "Why aren't you at your own apartment with Katie?"

"She kind of slept with the landlord and got me thrown off the lease."

The girl shook her head. "You sure know how to pick 'em." She began to pace the apartment for several minutes, muttering unintelligibly to herself before finally speaking again. "Okay, you two can stay here. But Steven, if your amnesiac friend over there turns out to be a sick killer..." _Funny, I wondering the same about Steven._ "...who kills me, I will haunt your ass until the day you go crazy and kill yourself."

Steven shrugged. "Fair enough." He smiled. "Thanks, Harry."

"Oh, I ain't doin' this for you," she said, shaking her head, "I'm doin' it for the guy who might kill me. The pity for you comes as a very cold side dish." She stalked off into the kitchen, and got herself some water.

The guy's jaw dropped, and he stared at the young woman as she left the room; Steven just sighed and collapsed on the opposite end of the couch.

"Precious, isn't she?"

The guy nodded slightly as he reached to touch his forehead again. _Something tells me I just witnessed the strangest family moment ever._ He was suddenly very nauseous.

**TBC**


	4. Chapter IV

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: Well, here is chapter four. I hope you enjoy. I would like to thank my beta Wolfie for making sure I kept people in character and finding some missing words. I don't know when the next chapter will be up because I have a statistics test this Wednesday, but I am almost finished with the final chapter.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter IV

"_The family seems to have two predominant functions: to provide warmth and love in times of need and to drive each other insane." Donald G. Smith_

The three stared at each other; Steven was propped on the arm of the couch staring over at Harry, Harry was in a short chair on the floor staring at the guy on the couch, and the guy on the couch was looking nervously between Harry and Steven.

"So," said the guy nervously, "Harry is an interesting name...for a girl."

"At least I know my name," said Harry bitterly; the guy immediately shut up.

"Harry, be nice. Just because you sold you soul to the devil for a date to the prom doesn't mean you have to take your bitterness out on other people."

_Great. I have no idea who I am, some stranger has taken me to stay with his sister who hates him and me by association, and I've got no way of figuring out who I am. Why does their fighting remind me of someone..._

The guy suddenly heard a very sarcastic voice in his head.

_"I'm sorry. Crazy person says what?"_

Another voice responded, but this once was angry instead. _"What!?"_

_"Atta Girl."_

"You okay over there, Jim?" asked Steven, waking the guy from his thought._ Man, I hate the name Jim._

"Jim?" said Harry, turning away from the guy on the couch.

Steven shrugged. "I named him."

"He's not a pet," said Harry. "You can't just name him."

"I really hate the name Jim."

Harry looked over at him. "What would you like to be called?" It was definitely an odd question to ask someone.

The guy blinked several times. _I've never had to name myself, at least I don't think I have. I __don't even know._ "I don't know."

"Fine," said Harry, shrugging and leaning back in her chair. "I'm going to call you Amnesia Guy then."

Steven shook his head. "You can call him AG for short."

Something clicked in the guy's head. _A...G...that can't be my name, can it? Who names their kid AG? But something about that just seems right. _He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. _God, I want to know who I am!_

He looked up and saw that Harry and Steven were still arguing. "AG sounds good." Harry and Steven both turned toward him.

"You can't be serious," said Steven.

"Yeah." The guy shrugged.

"Okay," said Harry. "AG it is."

The three of them sat in silence for several moments. "So," started the guy, "how did you end up with the name Harry?"

"That was a gift from our father," explained Steven. "He is a big music fan, plays in a band; he named each one of his kids after the lead singers of his favorite bands. I'm Steven Tyler Miller as in Areosmith. She is Deborah Harriet Miller as in Blondie."

"We have an older brother who is Frederick Mercury as in Queen," Harry added; the guy couldn't help but notice Steven wince when Harry said that.

"But how did you end up with your name as Harry?"

"I hate Deborah, I hate Debbie, and I hate Harriet. Harry is the only name I can live with."

"No matter how stupid a name it is," Steven threw in.

As Harry and Steven got into yet another argument, the guy got back to thinking about his own life, which was hard considering he knew nothing about it.

_I wonder if I have a brother or a sister...or a stupid name. God, why is it so fucking hard to come up with anything to tell me who I am! _As the guy listened to Harry and Steven argue, a weight began to settle in his chest.

He was lost in his thoughts until Harry addressed him again. "I'm guessing we need to find you a place to sleep. I've got a guest room; it's pretty sparse, but there's a bed, and it's clean."

"Shouldn't your brother stay in there?"

Harry looked over her shoulder at Steven, who was still sitting in the arm of the couch; she shook her head. "No. I'll give the guest room to who I dislike the least. Hey, you win!" Steven's jaw dropped, and yet another argument began between the two siblings.

XVIIIIV

"When will I be able to get out of here?" asked the young woman, lying in the hospital bed in front of Perry. She was an attractive young woman, but she was on the skinny side and seemed all too pale.

Now normally, he tried to keep his sarcasm and anger to himself when dealing with patients, well some of the time, but the day was already getting on his last nerve and he'd only been at work for two hours. Not to mention this was the third day that JD was missing, and the brief relief he felt about knowing JD was not avoiding him had turned back into worry and anger. Not anger at JD, but anger at not knowing where the younger man was, and anger at not being able to do anything about.

"If your vitals remain steady," replied Perry, "a few days."

"A few days!?" the woman shouted. "I have a photo shoot tomorrow. If I'm not there, they'll give it to some other girl. Do you know how long it took me to get where I am?"

"No," said Perry, making a note on the chart in front of him. "But I bet I can guess how many meals you've had to skip." The woman's eyes went wide. "It's not hard to figure out you know. You pass out at one of your photo shoots, they bring you in here and you're suffering from exhaustion, malnutrition, and dehydration, and a nurse could play xylophone on your ribs. A word of advice, it's not worth it; your career will probably go down the drain if you're dead."

The woman's mouth dropped open, and Perry hung the chart back on the bed, not really caring. "_There is no career out there worth dying over,"_ he thought. _"Especially one that involves torturing yourself." _

Kelso appeared from around the corner in front of him and began walking in his direction. "Perry, just the man I wanted to see?"

_"Speaking of torture." _Perry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm in a bit of a hurry right now, Bob."

"Well, this will only take a minute. It's about Dr. Dorian." That got Perry's attention. "I've noticed he hasn't worked his shift the last two days, and I know he follows you around like a puppy, so if you could tell him-"

"Blow it out your ass, Bob," said Perry, stalking off down the hallway. The last thing he wanted to hear was Bob telling him he needed to find JD and get him back to work.

_"I know I need to find JD, but I'm not too concerned about getting him back so he can work for you, Bobbo."_

As Perry continued down the hall, he thought about what he needed to do to find JD. The first step was probably to talk to his friends again.

_"They're probably gossiping over at the nurses' station; it's too hard to actually do any work around here." _It was easier to think he was the only one worried about JD, than to admit that JD's friends were probably just as worried; he was used to being alone when it came to emotions.

When the nurses' station came into view, Perry knew he was wrong, which he would never admit aloud. All of JD's groupies were crowded around the nurses' station, but a dark cloud seemed to have fallen over them. Elliot was talking as Perry approached.

"She said there was nothing she could do?" said Elliot. "What kind of cop is she?"

"She said unless we can tell her where JD was the day before he disappeared or who he was talking to, she doesn't have anything to go on."

"I just can't believe JD would just leave," said Elliot, shaking her head. "We have to find him. There has to be something."

"We're gonna find him," said Turk.

Elliot's pager suddenly went off, and after checking the display, she spoke again. "I've got to get going. I'll talk to you guys later." She hurried off.

"She's holding up surprisingly well," said Turk, watching Elliot walk away.

"Yeah," said Carla, "but it's a front. She's gonna break hard soon."

Turk nodded in agreement. "I've got to get to surgery, baby." He gave her a brief kiss. "I'll meet you for lunch later."

After Turk had walked away and Perry was sure that Elliot wasn't going to come back screaming, Perry walked up to Carla. "I take it you reported Newbie missing."

"Yeah, but without any information to go on, the police can't do much. I just wish Bambi would have told Turk where he was the night before he went missing. Turk asked and asked, but Bambi wouldn't tell."

Perry winced inwardly. "Are you saying that if you knew where Newbie was that night, it might be able to help find him?"

"Yes," replied Carla; she suddenly studied him carefully. "What do you know, Perry?"

"I might know where Clarissa was that night."

Carla clenched her teeth. "Where was he, Perry?" Perry stared down at his feet and mutter his answer. "What was that?"

"He...was...with...me," Perry repeated quietly. "He was moping around outside the hospital because of Miss Williams's death, so I took him to a bar."

"All night?"

"No, he kinda passed out at my place afterwards."

"Your place?"

"Which is probably why neither of us told you."

"Is there more?"

_"Not unless you count the make out session, the fact we slept in the same bed, and we would have kinda been a couple had he shown up for work." _Perry shook his head. "Nope. Nothing else."

Carla stared at Perry; it was obvious she didn't believe there was "nothing else." "As glad as I am to know where he was, as strange as it is, I don't think that's actually gonna help us find Bambi. Not unless you kidnapped him."

"Yeah," replied Perry. "He finally annoyed me to the point where I kidnapped him and buried him alive somewhere. Plus, I didn't want him telling people about my apartment." Perry's pager suddenly went off signaling him to end the conversation. "I've got to go." He walked away without another word, leaving a confused Carla in his wake.

XVIIIIV

AG's first night in Harry's apartment was a little awkward. He had to listen to Harry and Steven argue about just about everything they could think of until he finally couldn't take it anymore and went to hide out in the guest room that Harry was letting him stay in.

Without Harry and Steven's incessant arguing, however, AG was left alone with his thoughts, which wasn't much better. All he could think about, until he finally fell asleep, was the fact he didn't know anything about himself and that he was staying with two complete strangers. AG tried to remember anything at all; he tried until his head had actually began to hurt, but that may have been more from the bruising on the side of his head and the fact he had a slight concussion.

When AG woke up the next morning, he laid in bed for awhile and stared at the ceiling; he'd had a dream the night before, but he couldn't remember it no matter how hard it tried. Something was telling him that the dream would have told him something about himself. AG was hoping that he would have woken up and remembered just one thing about him, but there was nothing new in his empty mind.

Suddenly his mind drifted to a daydream. He was suddenly an adventurer in a dark cave. After avoiding numerous booby traps, adventurer AG came up upon an dusty, ornate chest. Wiping off the dust, adventurer AG cheered when he saw "Memories" engraved into the lid of the chest.

"Yes!" shouted AG. "Now I just need to avoid hostile natives."

When he noticed he was back in the guest room, AG's hopes sank.

_I don't think it's going to be as simple as finding some chest...My memories are probably more of a small statue that I have to piece together after adventures all over the world. I wonder if Steven and Harry want to be my sidekicks...I wonder if other people have long drawn out thoughts like these._

AG shook his head and slowly got out of bed. He made his way back into the major part of the apartment. No one was in the living room, but AG followed the smells of food to the kitchen. Harry, dressed in ripped jeans and an old t-shirt, stood at the stove, cooking.

"Morning," she said, without even turning around. "Have a seat."

AG looked from Harry to the table and back again before finally sitting down. "Um...where's Steven?"

"Work."

"Oh." AG was silent for a minute. "Don't you work?"

"Nope," replied Harry; AG watched as she cracked an egg into whatever she was making. "How do you like your eggs?"

AG thought for a minute; no answer came to mind. "I...don't know."

Harry visibly winced, and she turned to look at him. "Sorry. Forgot. How about scrambled?"

AG shrugged. "Sounds good."

Harry went back to cooking, and AG started looking around her kitchen. Unlike her living room, it was not decorated to the point of clutter. There was a calender on the fridge, next to a picture of Harry and an older man and a clock on the wall, but other than that, it was pretty neat and sparse.

"If you don't work," said AG, "what do you do?"

"I'm in college. I wanna design computer games."

"Do your parents pay your rent?"

Harry scoffed. "No." AG suddenly remembered her comment from the night before about her family turning their back on her.

Harry suddenly turned around with two plates full of scrambled eggs and toast. "You wanna know how I afford this place?" she asked, setting a plate of eggs in front of AG.

"Is that an offer to tell me?"

"Only if you don't try and be all sympathetic about it when I'm done," replied Harry, taking her own seat. "I hate when people are like that."

AG shrugged. "Deal."

"Okay. I had a uncle...he was actually my dad's uncle, Uncle Bill, and he was a great guy. Never had any kids of his own, but loved his nieces and nephews. Well, three years ago, when I was eighteen, my uncle told his family he was gay. Perfectly okay with me, but the rest of my family was horrified. My father tried to talk some sense into them, he's ten years younger than all his siblings so he's a little less conservative, but when your own wife wants to disown the man, it's kind of hard."

"Your mom?"

"Step-mom. My real mom ran off with some Spanish Don Juan when I was two. Dad married Julia just before I turned four. Anyway, under my step-mom's orders, Dad told my brothers and I not to visit with Uncle Bill anymore. I didn't listen, and I'm glad I didn't. Turns out the reason my uncle told the family he was gay was because he had AIDS, and about two years to live."

"My parents, more so my step-mom, threatened to throw me out if I continued to visit Uncle Bill. I'd already graduated from high school, so I left. I moved in with my uncle and started to take care of him. Drove him around, cooked, cleaned, helped him out. Before he got too sick, he decided we needed to go to Europe, and we spent a month traveling in England and France. It was amazing."

"When he got so bad I couldn't take care of him myself, I hired Hospice to help out. He finally passed away two years, and a month later than when he first told the family his news. I think he held on that extra month just to prove the doctors wrong."

"I'm sorr-" The look on Harry's face told him to stop before he finished the word.

"I always knew he was wealthy, but it never mattered to me. He was just my uncle. I planned his funeral and the wake, but I never went to the reading of his will; he always told me he was leaving to charity. All his nieces and nephews went. Two days after the reading, my uncle's lawyer called, I'd gotten to know him. Nice guy. Name was Ted."

"Ted?" said AG; that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Yeah. Real happy guy, always cracking jokes." The familiarity faded. "He asked me why I hadn't gone to the reading, and I told him about my uncle leaving it to charity. Turns out, not all of it was left to charity. A fourth of my uncle's fortune was left to me, along with whatever I wanted from his home, his Indian motorcycle, this apartment in which the rent is paid up for five years, and my college education for whatever school I want." Harry looked up at AG. "You wanna know what a fourth of his estate was?"

"What was it?"

"16 million dollars. I get two thousand each month, and the rest when I turn twenty-five."

AG's jaw dropped, and Harry just smirked. "Eat your eggs," she said. "They're getting cold." She took a bite of her own breakfast.

XVIIIIV

Perry peeked around the corner, trying to see if Carla was standing in the hallway. Ever since he had told her JD was with him the night before, she'd been hounding him to tell her why.

_"By now the entire hospital probably knows that JD was at my place, especially if Carla told Laverne. Hell, half the place probably thinks that I'm the reason JD is missing if it's gotten around that __he was at my place."_

Thinking he spotted Carla at the end of the hall he was about to walk down, Perry turned back around and was to head back the way he came. He walked smack dab into Carla. Perry's jaw dropped, and he looked back over his shoulder in confusion. "How did you-How did you do that?"

"Do what?" asked Carla, studying him carefully as she crossed her arms.

Perry shook his head. "Never mind. What can I help you with?" His words were polite, but his tone said to back off.

"You know, I can almost understand you taking JD out to a bar to try and make him feel better, but actually letting him stay at your apartment?"

"It's true." Perry pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"What is going on, Perry?"

"Nothing!" Several interns and a few visitors meandering down the hallway turned to stare, and Perry started walking away.

"We are far from done," said Carla, following him.

"What now?" He turned to face her and crossed his own arms to match her stance.

"I just want to know what is going on with you, Perry." She tilted her head to study him more carefully. "You've been acting weird even before we found out JD was missing. It's like-Oh my God." Carla's hand flew up to cover her mouth.

"What?" asked Perry suddenly very nervous.

"You are acting like you like him..." Carla's voice had dropped to a whisper.

"What?!" Perry was trying to sound angry, but he knew his face was turning red. _"What is this? I don't blush!"_

"You like JD, don't you? Like _like_?"

"What are you? Five?"

"You do!"

"I'm leaving!" Perry stalked off down the hallway, but Carla was on his tail.

"Perry?"

"Still leaving."

Carla let out a frustrated sigh, continuing to follow him. When they passed a supply closet, Carla quickly checked to see if was empty, grabbed Perry's arm, and pulled him inside.

"Isn't Turk going to be angry about this?" asked Perry, watching as she locked the door.

"Not as mad as JD," retaliated Carla; Perry shut up quickly. Carla took a deep breath. "Now, what is going on?"

"Even if there was something going on, why would I tell you? The only person in the hospital who can spread a rumor faster than you is Laverne, and I know you would tell her."

"Doesn't the fact that I haven't told anyone that JD was with you the night before count for anything?"

"Let me think...NO!" He tried to make his way to the door, but Carla stopped him.

"Perry, I am the closest thing to a friend you have in this hospital. You can trust me."

Perry stared at her, looking at the determination in her eyes; he sighed in defeat. "If there was something to tell you, you couldn't tell anyone else."

"I wouldn't."

"Not even that Turtle Head you call a boyfriend."

"Not even Turk."

Perry took a deep breath. "I took Newbie to the bar the other night so he wouldn't be alone, and maybe the kid had one or...four too many." Carla glared at him, but Perry continued talking. "Maybe after he had a few too many, he told me some things that he probably wouldn't have said if he was sober."

"Like what?"

"Like 'I _really_ care about you.'" Carla's jaw dropped, but Perry still continued talking; he was now, however, gritting his teeth. "Maybe after thinking about it a little, I realized I _really_ cared about Newbie too. Maybe after that, he threw up outside, and I took him back to my place."

"I can't believe this..."

"Maybe after talking a little more that night..." _"Amongst other things." _"We kind of were considering trying to make something work between us." Perry stopped talking and stared at a very shocked Carla. "Carla?" No response. "Carla?"

"I can't-What-" She finally got a sentence out. "Did you two sleep together?"

_"If you count sleeping in the same bed." _Aloud, he responded with a very angry. "No, we did not sleep together!"

"I can't believe you're gay! I mean, I can believe that JD is, I've always kind of wondered about him, but you."

"I'm not gay!" Perry ran a hand through his hair. "I just-I just like Newbie...a lot." As if his energy had spent in his entire explanation, Perry leaned against the wall.

Carla walked over to him and set her hand on his shoulder. "It's okay if you like him, it kind of explains the fact you always kind of let him follow you around." Perry shook his head and let out a sigh. "We're going to find him, Perry."

Perry looked up her and smirked. He really did want to believe her, but with him being gone three days, and even the police saying they didn't have much to go on, things weren't looking good.

_"My day can only get worse if Carla doesn't keep her word and tells Laverne. Man, the hospital would have a field day."_

**TBC**

This is a quote taken directly from the show. Not mine.

This sort of naming is based off two things. My dad is a fan of all those bands (My brothers and I are not named after lead singers), and there was a kid at my high school who was named after Steven Tyler.


	5. Chapter V

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: I would once again like to thank Wolfie for betaing. Five chapters left.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter V

"_Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." Mark Twain_

"Please, Katie. You said I could come by and get my things!" Steven yelled into the phone. Harry sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration; she had a terrible headache, and Steven's argument with his girlfriend was not helping. "You can't keep them; they're not yours...Hey! Hey! I used store credit to buy that Game Cube. Do you work at Gamestop? No!"

"Oh my God!" shouted Harry. She stood up from where she was sitting on her couch working on her laptop and grabbed the phone from her brother's hand. "Just give him his fucking stuff back, so he will shut the fuck up, and I can get some fucking work done!" She pressed end on the phone and tossed the phone back to her brother. "There problem solved!" She went back over to her spot on the couch.

"Satan, you do realize I'm gonna have to call her back now, don't you?"

"Yeah," said Harry, with a smirk, "but that felt real good."

Steven smiled. "Well, thanks for wanting to stand up for me."

Harry laughed. "I wasn't standing up for you. I just wanted to yell at someone, and since you're just pathetic, and AG can't remember anything about himself that I can complain about, well, Katie was a perfectly good target."

Steven shook his head. "You're a bad, bad person."

"Don't really care." She closed her laptop, set it next to her on the couch, got up and went to the kitchen.

Steven shook his head and flipped his phone back open. He dialed Katie's number and waited.

While he was waiting for Katie to answer, AG came out of the guest room, gently fingering the cut above his temple; his head had began hurting earlier, and he'd taken a nap. He saw Steven with the phone up to his ear and decided to make his way to the kitchen where Harry most likely was. In the short time he'd stayed in Harry's apartment, Steven had been on the phone about sixty percent of the time, most of the time with his ex...Sarah, Kristi...

"Katie!"

"What?!" said AG. Steven looked over at him, and AG's eyes went wide.

_Did I just respond to a girl's name? Is my name Katie? Well, Harry's a girl, and she's got a __guy's name, but then again she chose it? Was I once a girl? Well, that would be strange, but maybe I could figure out who I was easier...I was not a girl!_

"You still with me, AG?"

AG looked up and saw Steven staring at him. The phone was still up to his ear, so before AG could respond, Steven was talking to his ex once again. "Yeah, I'm still here."

AG watched Steven talk as he tried to sort out what had just happened. As he stared ahead blankly, Harry walked back into the living room and saw the strange scene. "Are you...okay?" she asked.

"I just responded to a girl's name..." replied AG. "I don't know why."

Harry shook her head. "I'm gonna go back into the kitchen." Harry turned around and left the room. "Where the world makes sense." AG sat down heavily on the couch

"Okay," said Steve, still talking on his phone. "I'll be there in an hour to get my things. Thanks, Katie. Um...sorry about my sister earlier." He hung up the phone and looked over at AG. "Are you alright?"

XVIIIIV

Elliot and Turk sat in the cafeteria aimlessly picking at the meals in front of them. With JD gone, neither one of them really felt like joking around or talking; their thoughts were focused wholly on their missing friend.

"Do you think he went to visit his mom or dad or brother?" asked Elliot as she pushed food around her plate; she didn't really have an appetite.

"I called his brother to see if maybe he'd heard from JD, but no go. Dan said he'd call their mom and dad, but I just don't see JD going to visit family and not telling us. Dan said to call again if we got any news. Besides, he's so busy here that I don't see how he would have gotten the time off."

"Not to mention no one in the hospital knew he was gonna be gone," said Elliot with a sigh. "There are people trying to cover his shifts all over the place."

"Where the Hell could he be?"

"Did something happen?"

Turk looked up from the meal he was completely uninterested in. "What do you mean?"

Elliot shrugged. "Did he get into a fight with anyone...you, Carla, Dr. Cox..."

Turk looked offended, but he was able to push away his annoyance by reminding himself that Elliot was only trying to help. "All I know is that his patient Miss Williams died."

"She was such a nice lady," said Elliot, having gotten the chance to speak with the woman a few times before her untimely death. "But JD has had patients die before; why would he go AWOL after this one?"

"I don't think he did," said Turk.

Elliot shrugged and then nodded in agreement; a moment later, her pager went off. "I've got to get going." She grabbed her plate, which was filled with untouched food, and headed to get rid of it.

After staring down at his own food, mostly uneaten, Turk picked up his own plate and left the table. As he headed to dump the plate, he saw his girlfriend and Dr. Cox standing just outside the entrance to the cafeteria, talking. He watched them for a few moments and tilted his head to study them better when he saw Carla give Dr. Cox an encouraging pat on the arm before Dr. Cox walked away; Carla left in the other direction.

Breaking into a jog, Turk made sure to catch Carla before she made it too far down the hall. "Hey, baby," he said as he set a hand on her shoulder.

It took a second for Turk's voice to reach her, but she turned and faced him. From the look on her face, Turk could tell that she was distracted. "Hey," she said, giving him a small smile.

"How has everything been today?"

"Um..good. Good. How about you?"

"Peachy. Well, except for the fact JD is still nowhere to be found."

"Yeah." Carla was beginning to look distracted again, and she began staring past Turk down the hall.

"Is everything alright?"

Carla quickly turned back to Turk. "Yeah. Everything's-everything's fine. Why?"

"What's going on with Dr. Cox?"

"What do you mean? Nothing's going on."

Turk crossed his arms. "I just saw you two."

"What are you implying?" Carla crossed her arms to match Turk.

"I'm not implying anything," said Turk, frantically uncrossing his arms when he realized what it sounded like he was saying. "It just seems weird that JD's gone, and Dr. Cox looks all gloomy."

"He's...uh...he's just run down. He's helping to cover JD's work." She looked around nervously. "Can we finish this later? I've got to go." Without waiting for a response from Turk, she hurried off down the hall; Turk scratched the back of his head, confused.

XVIIIIV

_"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"_ Perry thought to himself as he walked down the hall. _"Why did I tell her? Now, every fricking time I see her in the hall she's gonna try and be all sympathetic or try and get me to talk about everything." _Perry sighed. _"How can I even trust her not to let it slip to Laverne? Carla's one of the biggest gossips in the place."_

Continuing down the hall, Perry saw Turk walking in the opposite direction; he didn't think much of it until Turk stopped and started talking to him.

"What is going on?" Turk demanded, offering no explanation beforehand.

"Well, Gandhi. This is a hospital where we try to...you know...save people's lives and crap like that. I tend to diagnose them and give them advice on treatment and you, when you're not acting like a complete idiot, perform surgeries."

Turk sighed; he should have expected something like that from Dr. Cox, but he was hoping they could somehow avoid it with JD missing and everything. "You know that's not what I meant, Dr. Cox."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just with the huddled masses slowly sapping every ounce of caring and patience from me, I don't always have the ability to read the minds of the people who walk up to me and figure out what their vague comments mean."

"What were you and Carla talking about earlier?"

Perry rolled his eyes; somehow he knew this was going to happen. "I wasn't talking to her about anything."

"I saw you two outside the cafeteria."

"Isn't spying on your girlfriend a little high school?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Crap! You stopped my evil plan, Gandhi. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll go take care of the extra patients I'm covering because a certain girly doctor has gone missing." Turk didn't get a chance to say anything more. Perry quickly turned around and started off in the opposite direction down the hallway.

While Perry may have had a smug look on his when he walked away, it quickly abandoned his face a second later. Sure, Perry wasn't happy to be covering patients that JD would normally take care of, but it wasn't because of the extra work...well, it wasn't _only_ because of the extra. Only Carla knew that the other reason was the fact Perry was missing JD, as odd as it was.

XVIIIIV

AG and Harry were sitting in the living room when Steven returned from gathering his things from his old apartment. Harry was once again typing away on her laptop, working on something that she'd tried to explain to AG but with no success, and AG was flipping through the channels, hoping maybe a show would spark a memory; none of them did.

"So what was so important at Katie's that you couldn't live without it?" asked Harry, without looking up from her computer.

"Lots of things," said Steven defensively.

Harry looked up from the screen. "Like what?"

Steven swallowed hard and shrugged his shoulders. "Some clothes, a few books...my Game Cube and games."

"Figures," said Harry, going back to her computer.

"Don't be such a bitch," said Steven. "You have a Play Station right over there." Harry shook her head, but didn't look up.

"Game Cube?" It was AG's turn to be intrigued. While he couldn't remember his name or anything about himself, he did remember what a Game Cube was, and that video games were fun.

"Yeah." Steven held up the gaming system triumphantly. "You wanna play?"

"Sure."

"Great." Steven walked over to the couch and looked down at Harry. "Um...do you mind?"

"Not if you guys are quiet."

"No, Harry. I mean do you mind relocating?"

"You are aware this is my apartment, right?"

"Harry, your stuff is all over the couch." It was true. In addition to Harry and her laptop, she had books, notebooks, and miscellaneous computer items all around her.

"Once again, Steven, this is my apartment."

"Can't you work at your desk?"

"There's stuff all over it."

"Harry..."

"My God, Steven! You act like a five year old." However, Steven's five year old act must have won because Harry grabbed her computer and a notebook off the couch and disappeared into the kitchen. While most of her stuff was left behind, there was now enough room on the couch for Steven to sit.

After he hooked up his Game Cube, Steven came back over to the couch and tossed a controller to AG. As they played, AG couldn't help but feel that the situation was familiar.

_I must like to play video games. I just feel like I've done this bef-Crap Steven's gonna get me! X! X! X! Okay, saved myself. So, I'm a guy who's name might be similar to "AG" who might respond to a girl's name and plays vid- Crap! Fire, you stupid..Okay, got it. Where was I? I wonder if other people have long drawn out conversations with themselves...Wait, I already wondered about that...X! X! X!_

XVIIIIV

_"I am going crazy,"_ Perry thought to himself, mindlessly flipping the channels on the TV in his apartment as he took a drink of his scotch. _"With that stupid Newbie gone I can't seem to concentrate on anything but him. God! Where the Hell is he?" _He drained his scotch and leaned forward to rest his head in his hands. _"I didn't even want to start a relationship with him! Okay, maybe I did, but I wasn't __going to try. I just had to take him to that bar. That's it! When we find Francine, I am going to tell him that we cannot be in a relationship...not that we really were. Yeah, that's great, Cox. Break it off with the kid right after you find him on what could be a horrible life changing ordeal. Yeah, that'll make you a bigger man."_

With a sigh, Perry stood up from the couch and went to get himself another scotch. Two hours ago he'd gotten off of a long shift at the hospital completely exhausted. Not only had he spent a majority of the time trying to hide from both Carla and Turk, but he'd also ended up with several extra patients because in addition to JD being gone, one of the doctors had been told to go home because he was suffering from walking pneumonia, and Perry had to take several of his patients too.

With his refilled glass, Perry went back to the couch and continued thinking to himself; JD seemed to cloud all of his thoughts. _"This can't be healthy, thinking about him constantly. I'm probably gonna get cavities from all his stupid goody "gotta always be happy and nice to people and annoy Dr. Cox" sweet attitude. Man!"_ Setting the scotch on the coffee table, Perry leaned back on the couch and threw an arm over his eyes. _"I can't believe this. I miss Newbie."_

XVIIIIV

After a few hours of playing video games, which was finally ended by Harry getting fed up with working in the kitchen and unplugging the Game Cube, and a meal which consisted of the Chinese food Steven went down the street to pick up, AG finally decided just to go hide in the guest room. A few hours was about how long a truce between Harry and Steven could last, and after the food was gone, a comment to Harry about how she didn't seem to bother too much with grocery shopping sent Steven and Harry into another pointless argument. Judging from what she had told him that morning, Harry still held a lot of resentment toward her brother about not being there for her or her uncle.

It was only after a few minutes of laying on the bed that AG fell asleep, but unlike the other night, this sleep came complete with dreams. In the first one, he was sitting in a bar with a bottle of beer in front of him. On the bar stool to his left there was a dog that, upon further inspection, appeared to be stuffed. On the bar stool to his right, however, there was a man, but his face was dark. No matter how hard AG tried, he couldn't see the man's features. The man suddenly stood up and walked out of the bar before AG could see his face.

His second dream, however, was much different, and when AG woke up for the day a few hours later, he wasn't sure whether or not he was glad he remembered it. He was standing, he wasn't sure where because none of the items in the background contained any detail, and after several minutes (or what seemed like several minutes anyway) the same figure that had been sitting next to him at the bar suddenly came walking up to him. AG could tell it was a man, but his face was still featureless.

As if the dream wasn't strange enough, the featureless man was suddenly kissing him, and something about this just seemed strangely right to AG. The surprise, however, was still enough to jar AG from his sleep. Springing up in bed, AG's eyes scanned the guest room, but after finding nothing that connected the real world to the dream he'd just had, he slowly laid back down and fell back asleep.

XVIIIIV

Harry was typing away on her computer again when AG walked into the living room the next morning. With an exaggerated sigh, AG collapsed onto the couch and turned toward where Harry was working at her desk.

"Can I talk to you?" He pulled absently at the leg of the sweatpants he was wearing. Since staying in Harry's apartment, Steven had lent him some of his clothes, and although Steven was the same size in the waist, AG had about three inches on Steven in the height department, making all of his clothes a little short.

"You already seem to be," replied Harry, without turning her desk chair around to face AG.

"Seriously, Harry. I don't know if I'm remembering things or if my mind is just being cruel."

With a sigh to match AG's, Harry spun her chair around to face the amnesiac. "What can I do you for? But please remember, the longer you keep me from my work, the more irritable I become."

AG decided to say what was on his mind, hoping it would be enough to hold Harry's attention. "I think I'm gay."

Harry stared at him and shook her head. "You do realize that I am trying to design a computer game, right?"

"Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, but you couldn't have saved it for later?"

"It doesn't bother you?"

"You do remember the whole story about my gay uncle who I took care of and who eventually left me 16 million dollars, right? I thought you couldn't remember your life, not what happened yesterday." AG looked down at his hands. "Sorry. I'm a bit irritable. My instructor for my design class bumped up the due date for this project."

AG shook his head. "Even knowing that...I'm gay doesn't help me. It doesn't tell me who I am."

"You're a gay guy in his twenties...maybe thirties (can't really tell) who sometimes responds to girl names. Something tells me you may have something a little more to worry about other than your memory."

Shaking his head again, AG laughed. "That does sound pretty damn strange."

"Try the foundations of therapy." Harry gave a laugh, but then a serious look came over her face. "We'll figure out who you are, AG. When Steven isn't at work, he's sometimes talking to Ryan, that doctor from the clinic, trying to find some place that may be able to help you recover your memory. So far, he hasn't had much luck."

AG nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me. I haven't been making the calls. Ryan and I, we don't like each other."

"Why not?"

"That man was the source of my worst date ever."

"What happened?"

"The condensed version: I had to bail him out of jail at the end of the night. He never did pay me back that five hundred dollars." AG laughed. "So, how did you figure out you were gay? Do you like Steven? He did just break up with his girlfriend."

AG had never even thought about Steven in that way before Harry mentioned it, and after a brief thought about what Steven and him being together would be like, AG wished he could erase it from his mind. Somehow, like Harry's worst date, it ended with Steven getting bail out of jail. "No. I had some strange dreams last night, and in my last one, this man kissed me and it felt right...familiar. Besides, is Steven gay?"

"No, but he chooses the worst women. Maybe he'd have better luck with guys." She paused and laughed a little. "Who was the guy in your dream?"

"I don't know. I never did see his face."

XVIIIIV

Perry hadn't slept the night before, and he was paying for it now. His neck and shoulders ached from tossing and turning, his eyes were bloodshot, and the beginnings of dark circles had started under his eyes. _"Stupid Newbie going missing._" It may have been childish to blame JD, but Perry chalked it up to his tired mind.

Spotting Carla on his way to the nurses' station to pick up a patient's chart, Perry kept his head down so she knew not to speak to him. He wasn't sure it was really going to work considering she always seemed to talk to him when he wanted nothing to do with anyone. Luck seemed to be on his side, however, because Carla said nothing.

Perry picked up the chart off the nurses' station and flipped through it. Out of the corner of his eye though Perry saw a man in his late thirties arguing with a nurse. Perry pushed his mind past it and started to walk away. He stopped when he spotted the doctor who worked in the morgue who'd seen JD the day he disappeared. The guy looked as though he was going to wet his pants when he saw Perry looking at him.

"Hey, Nervous Guy, what are you staring at?"

"Um...well..." He shrugged. "You-you see the guy arg-arguing with the nur-nurse."

Perry glanced at the scene over his shoulder and then turned back. "Yeah."

"Well...you see..."

"Spit it out before I rip it out of you."

Nervous guy turned drastically pale, and Perry was surprised he didn't see a wet spot form on his pants. "That's the guy who was with JD!"

**TBC**


	6. Chapter VI

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: I would once again like to thank my beta Wolfie for doing a great job with this chapter. I don't know when I will be able to put the next chapter up.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter VI

"_Necessity is the mother of taking chances." Mark Twain_

Carla was walking back to the nurses' station when sudden shouting startled her from her thoughts on a patient she'd just visited and caused her to quicken her pace. What she saw upon arrival shocked her. Perry was being held back by two orderlies while another man, one whom she didn't recognize, was being held back by another set of orderlies; they were yelling unintelligibly at each other and trying to break free so they could fight. The nurses at the station and several interns were all watching with morbid curiosity, but no one seemed to be doing anything to try and stop them.

Carla ran up to the fight and immediately tried to appeal to Perry to get it to stop; Kelso would not be happy and would not hesitate at suspending Perry if he saw this. "Perry! What the Hell are you doing?!"

"He was the guy that Nervous Guy saw with JD!" shouted Perry angrily as he tried to pull his arms from the orderlies' grips. "He knows where he is!"

Carla was pretty sure that in the years JD had worked at the hospital she'd never once heard Perry call JD by his name, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind; she would have to think about that when Perry wasn't trying to kill someone. "What are you talking about?" demanded Carla, glancing at the other man being held back by orderlies. More people were coming to stare at the scene, including Turk and Elliot.

"Nervous Guy said this was the guy who he saw with Newbie!" shouted Perry, still trying to pull free. "He's got to know where he is!"

The man, who had been quiet up to this point, suddenly fumed. "I hope he's dead!"

Perry stopped struggling, the nurses who had been busy in the background talking amongst each other or trying to get hospital security up there were quiet, and everyone else seemed to stare at the man.

As if not noticing, or possibly caring, the effect his words had on the people around him, the man continued talking. "I hope he's dead! That bastard let my mom die! Yeah, Darla Williams. She was my mom! He was her doctor! He let her die! I hope he's dead! I'm only sorry I didn't get to do it myself!" The man's rant ended, and he breathed heavily, trying to regain control of his temper and breathing.

Taking advantage of the shock the two orderlies who had been holding him seemed to be in, Perry pulled his arms free from their loose grips and covered the seven feet between him and the angry man in what seemed like one step. Before anyone could stop him, Perry had punched the man in the face. The two orderlies who had been holding the man reacted quickly, before anyone else had come out of their stupor, and supported the now unconscious man.

As if the man's rant hadn't shocked everyone enough, Perry's knocking the man out cold made everyone's jaw drop. Carla looked between Perry and the unconscious man and then made her way slowly over to Turk who was on the other side of the circle that had formed around the two angry men. It seemed that no matter where or when or how old the spectators were, everyone wanted to watch a fight.

"Um...Turk, I think someone might want to call the police, and we might want to try and call Officer Slaton. We have some news for her." Turk nodded blankly, still staring at the fuming Perry who was towering over the unconscious man.

XVIIIIV

"Good news!" said Steven enthusiastically, waltzing into the apartment with a smile on his face.

AG was playing a game on Harry's Play Station, and Harry was once again working on her laptop, only now she was laying on the floor. Periodically a curse word would escape from her mouth, but nothing else, as she worked.

"You've decided that you are a horrible person for barging in on me and my apartment and have found somewhere else to stay." AG looked up from the game. "You can stay; I don't mind you."

"I see that our time together these past few days has really meant something to you, Harry," said Steven, shaking his head.

With a sigh, Harry closed her computer and got up off the floor. "If you've got such great news, will you please divulge it in the kitchen? I'm working on dinner; someone last night complained about my lack of groceries and homecooking, so I went out today and got some so that someone wouldn't whine." She walked off into the kitchen.

Steven looked at AG who shrugged and paused his game; they both followed Harry into the kitchen. She was standing at the counter, chopping different vegetables. "Today, I called Ryan again, and he's says there is a clinic with a support group and therapy for people with amnesia or memory problems."

"That's great!" said AG, smiling for real in what seemed like years.

"One problem," said Steven, holding up his finger. "The support group is free, but the therapy requires insurance or payment upon services."

_I knew this was going to be too good to be true. _"I don't have any money. I don't even have my own clothes. I'm wearing your pants!" AG looked to the side. _That couldn't have sounded any weirder._

"You're right." Steven gave him a sympathetic look.

AG sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. "I guess I'll just have to work with the group therapy." He paused. "I just...I just can't help but feel like the longer I'm away from real life, the harder it will be to go back."

"You're gonna get back to your old life," said Steven. "Trust me. Besides, you and I don't really have any money, but I know someone who has quite a bit of spare cash."

"I knew I was gonna get dragged into this," muttered Harry from where she stood.

"Come on, Harry. I know you've got a lot of money saved up. You can help him."

"I know, Steven..." She sighed and scooped a handful of vegetables into a bowl. "I'll help."

"Harry, you don't have to do that," said AG, not wanting to guilt her into doing something for him when she was already letting him live there.

"I know I don't." As she spoke, she continued chopping vegetables, not bothering to face them. "But I always want to be more like my uncle, right down to the fact that we both like men, and he would have jumped at this so I'll-" Harry stopped talking and cutting suddenly.

"Harry," said Steven, after several seconds had gone by and she hadn't continued. "Harry, you haven't finished your sentence."

"I know." Her voice was suddenly strained, and AG wondered if thinking about her uncle had brought up too many memories to handle. "I'm trying not to scream."

"Why?" asked Steven; AG slowly rose from his chair.

"You know the skin that goes between your index finger and thumb?"

"Yeah," said Steven and AG in unison.

"I just cut that in half, and I really don't want to look." Harry was standing completely still, not even moving to check her hand. Steven seemed to freeze in place, but AG sprung into action. Grabbing a dishtowel off the counter, AG made his way over to Harry. Looking down at the cutting board and Harry's hand, AG saw blood oozing from a nasty cut and slowly pooling around the carrot she'd been chopping; it was a truly disgusting sight.

"Give me your hand," said AG, gently taking hold of Harry's wrist and wrapping the towel around the cut. He noticed that Harry had closed her eyes.

"You don't-You don't think I've cut any tendons or ligaments or something..." She swallowed. "Do you?"

"I don't think you did. You managed a pretty deep cut, and it's gonna need some stitches, but the tendons and ligaments in a hand are farther down than you've cut. You're pretty lucky though. If you had cut something like that, well, it wouldn't be pretty." AG turned around to Steven. "You got a car?" Steven shook his head; upon seeing the bloody towel, Steven turned a bit green. "Shit."

"I've got one," said Harry, slowly pulling her hand from AG's grasp and putting pressure on the towel. "I don't drive it much, but it's there when I need it." She titled her head to the doorway of the kitchen. "Keys are by the door."

"Okay," said AG, turning back to Steven. "You need to drive us down to that clinic, okay?"

Steven swallowed but nodded his head. With a shaky hand, Steven grabbed the keys, and AG and Harry followed him out of the apartment.

XVIIIIV

"Did you hear anything from that officer?" asked Elliot. She, Carla, and Turk were all in the cafeteria, trying to avoid the hospital staff that were questioning them about Dr. Cox and the man he'd punched in the face. Although it looked like every person in the hospital had been watching the "fight," some had apparently missed out.

"Well, Officer Slaton said they did their best to try and get some information out of him, but he wouldn't tell them anything that really helped. He confessed, gladly by the way, to kidnapping JD, but he won't give any details or anything else. The police are now investigating it as a criminal matter instead of just a missing persons, but they're not making much headway." Turk took a drink from the milk carton in front of him after his long explanation.

"I just can't believe the guy would kidnap Bambi because he was his mother's doctor," murmured Carla, taking a drink of the coffee in front of her.

"I can't believe Dr. Cox punched the guy in the face," replied Elliot; Carla choked on her coffee causing both Turk and Elliot to stare at her. "You okay, Carla?"

"Yeah." Carla knew Perry would kill her if she let anything about him and JD slip. "I'm just glad Dr. Kelso didn't suspend him or anything."

"That would have been terrible," muttered Turk sarcastically; Carla slapped his arm. "Ow! I said it was terrible! Why did you hit me?"

Carla shook her head and was about to say something when all three of them turned toward the Janitor who'd suddenly taken a seat at their table. "Can we help you?"

"Is it true Mean Doctor knocked someone out today?" asked the Janitor anxiously. He looked like a child waiting for some grand surprise.

"Yes," replied Carla.

"Did he get fired?"

"No," all three of them replied in unison.

"Damn," muttered the Janitor. "He keeps me from doing some of my best pranks on Scooter."

"You do realize that JD has been missing all week?" said Turk, staring at the Janitor, confused.

"Yeah." The Janitor looked at Turk like he had said the stupidest thing in the world. "I'm worried."

"You are?" asked Elliot. That was certainly out of character for a man that JD claimed tortured him on a daily basis.

"Yeah. If Scooter doesn't come back, I'm gonna have to find someone new to torture. Do you know how long it takes to break someone in?" He looked around the cafeteria suddenly. "I gotta go." Without another word, the Janitor got up from the table and walked away.

"That was certainly strange," said Turk, watching the man walk away.

"Yeah," said Elliot and Carla in unison.

Although all three of them were holding up on the outside (except for Elliot who seemed to be spending a lot of time in the supply closets lately), none of them would admit the effect the man's words had on them. _"I hope he's dead."_ had been echoing around in their heads since the fight. JD couldn't be dead; he just couldn't.

XVIIIIV

"You kn-know," said Harry, voice somewhat slurred from painkillers, "it may be the slight blood lo-loss or the nic-nice painki-killers they gave at-at the clinic, bu-but I think I may kn-know something about you-you." She and AG were back at the apartment, sitting on the couch. Harry's hand had been stitched up, and she was enjoying the numbing effect of the drugs. Steven had gone out to get some pizza since Harry cooking seemed to be out of the question.

"What?"

"You-you're a...umm...giv-give me a sec. I had it...you're a doctor!"

"What?!"

"Think-think about it. You kne-knew exactly what to do-do about my hand." She held up her heavily bandaged left hand.

"I don't know. I just put pressure on it."

"Yeah-yeah, but Steve-Steven almost passed out-out. You reacted qui-quick, no-no hesi-hesitation. You knew the tendons and...and stuff in the hand...you knew where they were, and..and in the car, I don't know if you-you remember, but you were rambling on about-about all this medical stuff." She paused for a second. "It kinda...kinda got annoying-ing."

_I was? I kinda remember that, but I was so focused on Harry's hand I don't remember much about that car ride. _"I don't know, Harry. It makes sense, but isn't that kind of jumping to conclusions." _What am I saying? I want me to be a doctor! I want something that can help me figure out who I am! Man, being a doctor would be so cool._ For a moment he had a vision of himself walking down a hospital corridor, and everyone around him seemed amazed. _Why do I have a limp and a cane?_

"It may-maybe the painkillers coursing through my system, but I am ready to-to ju-jump to this con-conclusion. If-if we kno-know you're a doc-doctor, then we...we can find out-out who you are." Harry let out a huge yawn that she seemed to have been holding back for a while.

"How?"

Harry sighed and leaned her head back on the couch. "You watch TV. I'll-I'll tell you later. I got-gotta get some...sleep." It seemed like only a few seconds later, Harry was snoring with her head resting in a very uncomfortable position on the back of the couch.

Shaking his head, AG grabbed the remote off the arm of the couch and flipped on the television. After about twenty minutes of channel surfing, the door of the apartment opened, and Steven walked in carrying two pizzas.

"Pizza's here!" Steven said enthusiastically.

Harry's head automatically sprang up. "Pizza?"

"Yep." Steven was about to carry it into the kitchen, but Harry stopped him.

"I haven't cleaned up in there," said Harry. "I think it would be best if we ate out here."

The green tint to Steven's face came back for a second, and he nodded in agreement. After setting the pizzas on the coffee table, Steven disappeared into the kitchen, coming back a moment later with three plates, some napkins, and a couple beers.

Harry reached for a beer after grabbing a couple slices of pizza, but AG stopped her. "You've already got a painkiller cocktail floating around in your system, you are not adding beer to that mixture."

Harry glared at him as she pulled her hand back. "Should've never told you were a doctor," she muttered, before taking a bite of pizza. "Bastard."

XVIIIIV

_"'I hope he's dead.'" _Perry thought to himself. _"'I hope he's dead!' If I ever see that guy again I am going to kill him!"_ He was back at his apartment, pacing the floor; an untouched scotch sat on the coffee table. _"If that guy has done anything to Newbie, I'll..."_ Even in his thoughts, words escaped him.

The longer JD was gone, the less of a chance they had of finding him, and Perry seemed to be losing hope that they would. _"What the fuck has that guy done with him?" _Carla had told him what she'd heard from the officer in charge of JD's missing person's case, and he fumed at the mere thought of the bastard hurting JD.

"Dammit!" shouted Perry, slamming his hand into the wall in front of him. It was getting harder and harder to deal with this all on his own. _"Maybe I should talk to Newbie's...NO! I am not going to talk to Newbie's little girlfriends! I'd rather have Jordan pull off all my toenails with her claws."_

Perry winced as he pulled his hand off the wall; he must have hit the wall harder than he thought (literally and metaphorically). He walked over to the couch and grabbed his scotch as he sat down. It was going to be a long night.

XVIIIIV

AG woke up late the next morning. He, Harry, and Steven had stayed up till one, eating the pizza and eventually playing video games. When AG finally went to bed, he'd tossed and turned thinking about what Harry had said. _She's so sure I'm a doctor, but what if I'm not? How can she figure out who I am by knowing I'm a doctor? Is Harry a spy? Maybe that's why she can afford this place. Maybe her uncle was just a cover story. Wait, but there haven't been any mysterious people coming by here and handing her envelopes or anything..._

When he finally had fallen asleep, sometime close to four, AG was once again plagued by strange dreams. He was once again kissing the man who's face he couldn't see, but the kiss was interrupted by Harry who was in a kung fu fight with a ninja that carried a mop. After a second dream, which consisted of a carrot bleeding to death, AG gave up on sleep and stumbled tiredly from the guest room. He was greeted by the sounds of a heated argument between Harry and Steven coming from the kitchen.

"I can't believe you!" shouted Steven as AG walked into the kitchen. "I can't believe you would do this!"

"He can help!" retorted Harry. "He has access to the files we need!"

"I hate him!"

"That really has nothing to do with AG!"

"He slept with my girlfriend!"

"She was a slut! I tried to tell you that!"

"You didn't sleep with her!"

Harry's voice suddenly dropped. "I didn't want a STD."

Steven glared at her. "Not funny."

"Look, this is for AG. We can help him; it's what we've been trying to do."

"What's going on?" asked AG; neither Harry nor Steven had noticed he was there.

Steven crossed his arms and sat down at the table, and Harry turned toward the sink and began scrubbing what looked like the cutting board from last night. Her bad hand was out of the water, but her good hand was scrubbing away. "Today, we're going down to the police station; I've got someone who is going to help us look through some missing persons files, and we're hoping to find your identity."

"Not just someone," said Steven angrily.

"You don't have to come." Steven rolled his eyes and stalked out of the kitchen.

"What's the matter with him?" asked AG.

"The person who is going to help is our older brother Freddie; he's a police detective. Steven and Freddie don't get along."

"Why?"

"As you might have heard, Freddie slept with Steven's girlfriend, the one he had before Katie, at Christmas." AG's jaw dropped. "I told you Steven knew how to pick. You might want to get dressed; we've got to be down at the police station by one."

**TBC**


	7. Chapter VII

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: I would once like to thank Wolfie would did the fastest beta ever for this chapter. We all should give Wolfie a round of applause (Claps). I don't know when chapter eight will be up.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter VII

"_If people knew who the angels were, they would be very nice when they saw one and would still do the their same evil garbage when they thought none were around. Knowing who they are defeats the purpose." What Happened to Lani Garver_

The police station that Harry took AG to was somewhere between busy and just enough work to keep people from getting bored. Steven was moping behind him, but he had agreed to try and be civil. AG was pretty sure it had a lot to do with the veiled threats Harry kept delivering on the drive over.

"Harry!" said an enthusiastic voice from behind them. The three of them turned around to see an officer walking toward them. He was an older and taller, sharing many features with both Harry and Steven. Harry gave the man an awkward hug. "How are you?"

"Pretty good, Freddie."

"I heard you're going to college."

"Yep. Designing computer games."

"That suits you." He looked down at her injured hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"Life got to be too much, but I didn't know wrists would work better."

"That's not funny, Harry."

"Neither is sleeping with your brother's girlfriend," Steven threw in from where he stood behind AG.

"Steven..." Freddie smiled awkwardly. "I didn't know you were coming."

"I didn't plan on it."

"Okay," said Harry, interrupting the glare fest that had began between the two brothers. "Before you two try and kill each other with either words or fists, can we look at those files?"

Freddie looked over at Harry. "Yeah. Sorry. Um...right over here." Freddie led the three of them over to a cluttered desk with a computer sitting in the corner. "Before you got here, I set up the parameters for our search." He looked at AG. "I assume you're the person whose identity we are trying to find."

"Yeah," replied AG. "I'm...AG."

"AG?" said Freddie, obviously confused.

"Amnesia Guy," explained Harry.

"I wanted to name him Jim," explained Steven.

Freddie shook his head and then turned back to the computer. "Okay, AG. Like I said, I set up the parameters before you got here. In the tri-state area, I got all the missing persons cases, although some of the statuses on them have changed."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"Oh." Freddie looked up at them. "Sometimes a case will change from missing to kidnapping or something. It mainly happens with missing children. Those files are then part of both databases." He turned back toward the computer. "I then narrowed it down to just men, and then I narrowed it down more to men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five, based off what my sister said. That left me with 300 cases. I then narrowed it down to just men who were doctors or worked in a hospital. That got me to 37 cases which I am going to print off for you now." Freddie hit the print button on his computer. "It is all up to you guys now. Read these people descriptions, and if you think you've got a match, call them. All the numbers you need are on those sheets."

"Is this legal?" asked Steven suspiciously.

"I think so," said Freddie. "These files aren't off limits...to me." He coughed. "Um...the dates on these files range from four years ago to just a couple days ago." He smiled. "Good luck. I hope you got a decent phone plan."

XVIIIIV

Carla was tired. After the incident yesterday with Perry and the man, whom they later found out was named John Williams, and another long phone with Officer Slaton only to find out she had nothing more to tell them, Carla had to deal with a long shift at the hospital. She'd seen Elliot and Turk around the hospital, and they looked as tired as she felt. Perry, however, was still skillfully avoiding her; in fact, he seemed to be skillfully avoiding everyone, especially Dr. Kelso. He was lucky enough not to be suspended, and it was in part due to all the staff members who could vouch for what John Williams had been ranting about.

She was surprised, however, when Perry walked up to the nurses' station and leaned on it heavily. "You okay?" asked Carla.

"I'm fine," replied Perry, gruffly. Carla was surprised no sarcastic comment followed. "Have you heard anything else from the officer about Newbie?"

Carla was a little surprised that Perry had come out and just asked without beating around the bush. "Um...no."

"Great! Another incompetent idiot!"

"You're cranky." In all honesty, he wasn't acting too different from usual; Carla just wanted to keep the conversation going so she could tell if Perry was actually okay.

"Oh, why thank you mother. Maybe I'll go take a nap, and if I'm really good, I can have a juice box."

_"There's normal Perry,"_ thought Carla. "Has Kelso talked to you at all today?"

"Nope. Which is probably a good thing because I might just punch him in the face too."

Carla sighed. "We're going to find Bambi."

"Really? Cause it's been four days now, and even that cop can't come up with anything helpful. The biggest lead we've gotten is that some deceased patient's crazy son hoped he was dead!" Carla could've sworn she heard Perry's voice crack, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Look, Perry-" Before she could finish her sentence, the phone next to her rang loudly. Carla answered it, barely managing to keep the annoyance out of her voice. It changed quickly though when Carla heard what the person on the other end of the line had to say. "Yes, this is her...What?"

XVIIIIV

AG was beginning to lose hope that any of the cases Steven and Harry's brother had given him were going to work out. The side of the conversations he was hearing from Harry and Steven, who were talking away on their cellphones, was not promising.

"No, I don't think it's him...He doesn't have blond hair...He didn't die." Steven's luck wasn't going well, but at lest he was being polite to the people he was talking to; Harry, on the other hand, wasn't holding back any of her frustration on the people she talked to.

"Well if you've already found him why is he still listed as a missing person...I am not being rude...You're being rude...Well, Goodbye!"

AG sighed and leaned back on the couch; Harry and Steven were on the fifteenth and sixteenth cases respectively, and the closest they had to a match was a doctor who went missing in southern California. It hadn't worked out.

_"I am not even going to ask how you know that," Harry said to the nurse on the other end of the phone. "I am not going to check for it." Harry sighed and took the phone away from her ear._

_"Um...AG can you go see if you have a birthmark on your left butt cheek?"_

_"What?"_

_Harry sighed, obviously embarrassed at having to ask. "Just go do it."_

_Feeling very odd, AG went to the guest room and checked to see if there was a birthmark on his butt. He came back out a moment later, shaking his head._

_"There is no birthmark," Harry said to the person on the phone. "Well, you have a nice day too."_

"I am hanging up now...No!...He is not the guy you're looking for..." Harry hung up her cellphone and sat down on the couch next to AG. "I'm getting so sick of making calls."

"Yes...well, thank you for your time." Steven hung up the phone and tossed the case into the pile of failed calls. "16 done," muttered Steven, taking a seat on the arm of the couch. "Only 21 one more to go."

"I am not making the next call," said Harry. "I need a break."

"I've made ten of these calls, Harry," said Steven, sounding very irritated. "It was your idea to call and get Freddie's help; you can make the next call." He was pointing at her and trying to look intimidating, but he really only ended up looking constipated.

"Fine," said Harry, reaching forward and pulling another case off the stack. "Umm...Sacred Heart. Does that ring any bells?" AG shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, well, let's give it a try. It looks like a nurse there filed the report, Carla Espinosa." Harry dialed the number and waited while it rang. Steven started looking for another case while Harry made her phone call.

"Um...yes...I need to speak with Carla Espinosa...Yes, I'll hold." Harry tapped her foot impatiently on the coffee table as two minutes passed. "Um...is this Carla Espinosa...You see, I'm calling about the missing persons report you filed on a John Dorian...We have a man here with amnesia who might be who you're looking for...Can you..um...describe him?" Harry turned toward AG and apparently studied him while listening to the woman's description. "Yeah. That matches him pretty well...Um...is there anything you can tell me that's very specific about him...that doesn't consist of a birthmark someplace weird..." Harry's brow furrowed. "What?" She paused. "Hold on; I'll ask." Harry pulled her phone away from her ear again and looked up at AG. "Do you...um...daydream...a lot?"

AG thought about it and ended up daydreaming about being trapped in his own imagination. Steven poking him in the back brought him back to reality. "Umm...," said AG. "Maybe...yeah."

"He says yeah..." Harry listened intently. "He doesn't remember those things...Well, we're pretty sure he's a doctor...Do you know why he went missing?" Harry sat and listened, and her mouth dropped open a bit. "Well, my brother was the one who found him. He was left outside a clinic. He had a head injury, a mild concussion and a little bruising." AG reached up and touched the fading cut and bruises gently. "It seems like we might have found your friend, and this guy's identity...Well, we are in Kentworth, California." Harry's face fell. "That's not going to work...I can't afford it...Well, I'm not just gonna send him down on a bus or something...What if it turns out he's not John Dorian. Then he's guy with no memory in a strange town...Why don't I give you my email, and you send me a picture...No there wasn't one with the file...Okay, you send me the picture, and as soon as I get it, I'll call you and tell you if it's a match."

As Harry talked, AG thought to himself. _Why doesn't John Dorian sound right? It doesn't ring a bell like AG did. _He reached forward and picked up the file. He slowly read the description, but nothing on it really stuck out. _Why does nothing on here on look familiar?! _With a frustrated sigh, AG got off the couch and went to the guest bedroom. He knew he should be happy that they might have found his identity, but something still seemed to be missing.

"Hold on. Let me ask," said Harry, as AG walked out of the room. "Um...no. You can't talk to him. He just left...Yeah, I'll call you back as soon as I get that email." Harry slowly hung up the phone and turned toward Steven. "What's going on?"

Steven shrugged. "He just got up and left."

"I wonder what's wrong."

XVIIIIV

Perry had been bugging her all through her conversation with the woman, whose name she'd neglected to get, who'd called about JD. It had really begun to get on her nerves when Perry reached over to try and take the phone from her; she'd slapped his hand hard enough to leave a red mark. When she finally hung up the phone, Perry was looking at her expectantly.

"Well?" he demanded.

"She called about JD. She said her brother found him unconscious outside a clinic. He seems to match JD's description. The head injury matches what John Williams said about knocking him out."

Perry turned pale. "Is-is he in a coma or something?"

"No," said Carla quickly, shaking her head. "He's got amnesia. She said she's pretty sure he's a doctor, and she said he said yes when I asked if he daydreamed a lot. We might have found him. I'm supposed to email her a picture, so she can make sure he's the right guy. If it is, I think Turk and I are going to have to make arrangements to go up there."

"Why can't he come down here?" demanded Perry. In all actuality, it wasn't the fact that there might be traveled involved in getting Newbie (he would go up there in a heartbeat) that bothered him; it was that Carla hadn't involved him in the travel.

"She made a good point. She doesn't want to just send a guy with no memory to strange city, even if it is his home."

Perry fumed. "Does she think we'll hurt him?"

"Perry, she's just trying to look out for him. You should be happy about that." She looked at him. "Or least less pissed off than normal. Now, if you'll excuse, my shift ends in about an hour, and then I'm going to go home and email her a picture." A real smile slipped onto her face for the first time in days. "I'm going to go tell Turk and Elliot the good news."

Carla's leaving left Perry alone with his own thoughts. _"Of course I'm happy someone has been looking out for Newbie! Hell, the kid can't freaking take care of himself." _A terrible thought came to Perry's mind. _"What if it's not JD? God! What if we don't find him?" _Perry was amazed at how he went from semi-happy to a sinking, cold feeling in his gut.

XVIIIIV

AG had been laying on the bed in the guest room for almost two hours when Harry walked in; his mind had been racing through every possibility that could come from him being John Dorian. Three of them ended in him being a ninja. _I must really like ninjas._

Harry walked over and sat on the end of the bed, and for several minutes, neither one of them said anything, but she finally broke the silence. "I can start calling you John if you think that would help."

"Did you get the picture?"

"You look just like him."

"So am I going to go down there?"

"No," said Harry. "They're gonna come up here. It didn't seem wise to just send you down there. She wanted to talk to you, but I told her you were sleeping."

"John doesn't ring any bells."

"Well, maybe it's gonna take more than a name. There were some other people in the picture she sent. Maybe you should take a look at it."

"What if I don't remember anything? What if they expect me to just remember, and I don't?"

"Something tells me you're far more concerned with disappointing them then getting your memory back."

"I want to know who I am. I want there to stop just being this blank canvas in my head."

"There will be. Carla, the nurse I talked to, and her boyfriend, who she says is your best friend, are gonna be here the day after tomorrow. I'm sure it's all gonna come back to you." Harry stood up. "When you're ready, you might want to come out here and take a look at this picture. You look pretty happy."

As she started to walk out of the room, AG raised himself up on his elbows. "Harry?" he said, stopping her from leaving.

"Yeah?" She turned back around

"Can you and Steven keep calling me AG?"

A shadow fell over Harry's face, but she nodded. "Yeah. Steven went out to get some sandwiches." She raised her injured hand. "I'm still not up for cooking. I'll tell you when he gets back." With a heavy sigh, she left the room.

AG lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. In the four days he'd been living with Harry, he'd seen many sides to her, but this was the first time he saw a sad Harry; he knew it was because of him. He knew that she just wanted him to get his life back and be happy, but it was hard when even his name and a complete description of himself didn't ring any bells.

_What if I don't ever remember who I am? What if my "friends" don't want to help me? God! _AG rolled onto his side and grabbed hold of his head. "Remember something!" AG shouted at himself. "Come on! Dammit! Remember something! You're a doctor! You're name is John! Remember something!"

His mind remained blank, and with a grunt of frustration, AG flopped onto his back and glared angrily at the ceiling.

XVIIIIV

For Turk, Carla, Elliot, and Perry, the two days before they left for Kentworth went by as a blur, but a blur that went at a snail's pace. The days passed slowly, but they barely registered what happened. When Elliot heard that Carla and Turk were going to get JD, she'd instantly wanted to go along too. It made Turk and Carla nervous at first, not wanting to overwhelm JD if his memory still hadn't returned, but the desperate look on Elliot's face made them give in. Normally, all three of them getting the two days off needed to go to Kentworth would have taken a miracle or a deal with the Devil (Jordan, however, was out of town), but it was surprisingly hassle free.

Carla was wondering about the unexpected easiness while returning from a patient's room when

she spotted a very smug looking Kelso giving a list of instructions to a very pissed off, but oddly silent Perry. She suddenly had a pretty good idea about how they'd managed the days off so when Perry showed up at Turk and JD's apartment with a bag, fully intending on making the trip with them, Carla made sure that neither Turk nor Elliot tried to stop him. For Perry's sake, she also made sure that they didn't badger him to death with questions.

(A/N) The drive to Kentworth was cramped and awkward. Had it just been Elliot, Carla, and Turk, the three would have joked around and talked endlessly about how good it would be to see JD again, but with the very agitated Perry sitting silently in backseat, none of them really wanted to say anything. In a desperate attempt to kill the suffocating silence, Carla turned on the radio, and hip hop, which served to annoy Perry further, provided a major distraction for most of the ride.

**TBC**

(A/N) My family vacations, only with country music.


	8. Chapter VIII

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: Sorry about the lateness of the chapter, but Wolfie was sick, and I feel bad because I was impatient. (Kicks Self). I hope you all enjoy. Two chapters to go.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter VIII

AG stared at the picture on Harry's desktop computer, but none of the people smiling back at him brought back any memories. These faces were about as helpful as the faceless guy that had been in his dreams. He studied each person carefully, hoping a closer inspection would help, but it didn't. There was an attractive blond girl with her arm slung around the guy who was supposedly him which made AG wonder if he may actually be bi. There was a pretty Spanish or Latina woman who looked to be very close to a black man with a shaved head. Harry told him the black man was his best friend, and he and the Latina woman would be the ones to get him, but it still didn't bring back any memories.

AG stared at his own image in the picture, and anger bubbled inside him. In the picture, he looked happy; there was no doubt in this man's eyes about who he really was. AG started thinking he'd been happier this week not knowing his identity, and that thought agitated him further. "Dammit!" shouted AG, pushing himself away from the computer.

"Shit!" retaliated Harry from her spot on the couch. Her assignment had been turned in the day before, and she and Steven were playing each other at some Play Station game. It seemed that after having to face their oldest brother together, they had finally gotten over their animosity towards each other. They could stay in each other's presence for long periods of time without trying to kill each other.

"I can't remember anything!" said AG angrily. "I'm in that picture with them, but it doesn't bring back anything. I may as well still just be a stranger."

"Ryan told me that bringing back a person's memory is tricky. It can sometimes take giving them small bits of their life and piecing it back together slowly. For other people, one thing, a word, a smell, a person, just brings it all back suddenly." A cellphone ringer suddenly broke through the air, and Steven paused the game and pulled out his phone. "Speaking of Ryan."

As Steven got up from the couch and began his conversation with Ryan, Harry continued talking to AG. "Maybe it's gonna take actually seeing them and talking to them to bring your memories back. Maybe the picture's just not enough."

"Even my name doesn't sound familiar." AG crossed his arms and waited for Harry to try and battle that logic.

"Maybe you go by a nickname. Do you think I respond to Debbie to easily? No. I go by Harry. If I'd lost my memory and someone told me my name was Debbie, I'd probably laugh in their face." Her statement managed to get a chuckle out of AG. "You're gonna remember. You just have to relax and be happy that you've got two people driving all the way here to get you because they care about you."

AG smirked, but nodded in agreement.

"Look, Ryan, I want you to stay right where you are and wait for me...NO! Don't you dare call her!...I'll be there in ten minutes, tops." Steven hung up his cell and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe this!"

"Can't believe what?" asked Harry, putting down her game controller.

"Ryan proposed to his girlfriend last night, and she turned him down. Now, Ryan's wasted and wallowing about it."

"It's only eleven," said AG, sounding concerned.

"Exactly. Now, I've got to go and get him."

"Where is he?" asked Harry.

"Where he proposed to her at, the pier out on the lake."

"My God." Harry shook her head and leaned back on the couch.

"Harry, I need some help with him."

"I ain't helping; I'm not going anywhere near him."

"Harry..."

"I'll go," AG threw in suddenly; both Harry and Steven turned toward him.

"AG, your friends are gonna be here this afternoon," said Harry, trying to reason with him.

AG shrugged. "That's a few hours away. I can go and help and be back in plenty of time. Right, Steven?"

Steven nodded, obviously not wanting to go and try to get Ryan by himself. "Yeah."

"I don't know." Harry looked between Steven and AG. "I think it would be better if you stayed here."

"I wanna pay you guys back for your help. What better way than helping Steven get his friend, and keeping you from seeing a guy you hate?"

Harry let out a sigh of defeat, but nodded her head. "Okay, but Steven you better have him back by two, and you had better not bring Ryan here."

"I won't," said Steven. He looked over at AG. "Let's go."

AG nodded in agreement and followed Steven out the door. As Harry watched them go, she couldn't help but feel that something was going to go terribly wrong.

XVIIIIV

When they pulled up to the apartment building Carla had gotten as the address of Deborah Miller, all four of them were happy to be able to get out of the car. Turk, Elliot, and Carla were happy to get out because they could finally all talk in peace without Perry huffing at their conversations, and Perry was happy because being cooped up in a car with anyone for more than ten minutes was torture.

They all looked up at the apartment building. It was an older building with only three stories, but it appeared to be in pretty good shape. "This is the place," said Carla, not caring if anyone made fun of her for pointing out the obvious; at least she was attempting to break the uncomfortable silence around them.

"What floor is this girl on?" asked Turk.

"Third."

The four of them walked over to the doors of the building expecting to find a call button for the apartments, but the wall next to the door was empty; apparently this building wasn't too concerned with security. They entered and after finding that the building didn't seem to have an elevator, took the stairs up to the third floor.

"This is the place," said Carla, stopping the group outside an apartment about midway down the hall. She knocked loudly on the door, and the group waited expectantly.

There was a thumping of someone walking toward the door, and a very agitated voice called out as the door was thrown open "For the last time, I don't want to buy any cookies!" When the woman who opened the door got a look at the four of them, a very embarrassed look came over her face. "You are not the annoying Girl Scout from down the hall." She looked past them to Elliot. "You could be, if she suddenly grew up, but the rest-I'm sorry...um...can I help you?" Everyone in the group was thinking the same thing: Deborah Miller was a lot younger than they expected.

"Um...yes," said Carla. "I'm Carla Espinosa. We spoke on the phone." She extended her hand, but the girl sheepishly held up her hand to show them the bandages.

"Shaking's not a good idea. I had an accident few days ago." She looked around at them all for a second and then shook her head. "I'm sorry. Come on in." She opened the door wide and stepped out of the way so they could all enter. "I wasn't expecting you till this afternoon...or for there to be quite so many of you." She paused. "I'm-I'm Harry Miller."

"Harry?" said Turk, looking at her oddly.

"It's a long, kinda pointless story." She shrugged. "Not really worth it...AG's not actually here right now?"

"AG?" said Perry, eying the young woman suspiciously.

"Oh." The woman hit her forehead with the palm of her good hand. "John. AG is what my brother and I have been calling him."

"He actually goes by JD," said Elliot, not being able to help the need to correct the woman.

"Oh. Okay. Well, JD's not here right now. He and my brother went to go pick up a friend who is having some problems. The friend is actually the doctor who treated AG-JD."

"When do you expect him back?" asked Turk.

"I don't know. I wasn't expecting you guys so soon." She ran her good hand through her hair. "Wait! I can take you to where he should be. He and my brother only left about fifteen minutes ago." The girl hurried over to the door and picked up a helmet, but then suddenly stopped. "I can't ride, and Steven has my car." She turned toward the group. "Any chance you guys have a car?"

Carla and Perry rolled their eyes, while Turk and Elliot shook their heads; the whole group wasn't sure what to make of the young woman, but they led her down to their car and let her direct them to where JD was.

XVIIIIV

The man standing at the end of the short pier staring sadly into the water was completely different from the competent doctor AG had met at the clinic when he first woke up. Gone was the doctor calmness about him, and it had been replaced by a terrible sadness. It was actually making AG pretty damn nervous.

"Ryan, we really need to talk about this?" said Steven, trying to sound authoritative, but AG could tell he was just as nervous as himself.

_I can't believe this guy can go from put together young doctor to complete head case in about day. _AG had seen Ryan yesterday when he came over to the apartment to borrow a suit jacket from Steven. _I guess his girlfriend did refuse his proposal, but Steven's ex got him kicked out of his own apartment, and he seems to have held up pretty good...except for the other night Harry said she found him making drunk phone calls to her._ AG was suddenly drawn into a daydream where he and Harry were dealing with a heartbroken Steven and Ryan who sat on the couch in Harry's apartment, pigging out on ice cream and comparing tragic stories. AG shook his head; that wasn't going to happen because today his "friends" (that was still weird to think or say) were picking him up.

"You don't understand!" shouted Ryan angrily. He stumbled back a bit and nearly fell off the pier into the freezing October waters. "I loved her! She just looked at me like I was crazy!" He stumbled again, and AG was almost certain he was going to slip; the doctor, which had sprang forth when Harry'd cut her hand open, suddenly came to AG's surface.

"Ryan, have you taken anything?" asked AG, taking a tentative step toward the upset doctor.

"What?" asked Ryan, suddenly very wary of AG.

"Have you taken anything, likes pills or something else..."

"I've-I've had a few beers, but-but not that many..." His voice trailed off, and he suddenly didn't seem to like the idea of Steven and AG getting closer to him. "Stay back!" He shouted clutching the railing of the pier very tightly with one arm while holding his other out to keep the other two men away. Both AG and Steven saw a small gold ring clutched loosely in his outstretched hand.

"Ryan, we're just trying to help," said Steven, trying to be a voice of reason. "You called me for help."

Ryan stumbled again, and AG couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what the freezing waters would do to the drunken man's system. "I just-I just need to..." Ryan turned around quickly and raised the arm holding the ring. AG and Steven both knew that Ryan intended to throw the ring into the lake, but both of them also knew there was a damn good chance Ryan would lose his balance and fall in if he did. AG reacted quickly and rushed at Ryan, hoping to pull the man back to the safety of pier; Ryan, however, didn't seem to think that this was the case and apparently thought AG was going to try and stop him from throwing the ring.

With strength that AG would later wonder where it came, Ryan threw him off his back, causing AG to stumble back into the railing of the pier. For only a second, AG was leaning against the railing, but a splintering noise filled the morning air, and AG felt the sickening feeling of being in midair and having nothing to support him.

As he fell the seven feet into the waters below, AG heard many things at once, but he was still able to pick them all out. Even as his head bounced off one of the pier legs and his body struck the freezing waters, JD wondered which thing was the trigger that gave him his memory back: the two voices that frantically shouted JD, the woman's voice that yelled out Bambi, the unsure voice that screamed AG, and the distinctly male voice that called out Newbie.

**TBC**


	9. Chapter IX

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: Thanks again to my beta Wolfie who did a wicked fast beta job on this chapter. I hope you all enjoy, and there is only one chapter left.

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter IX

"_You live and learn. At any rate, you live." Douglas Noel Adams_

Introductions had been made between the group from Sacred Heart and Harry as Turk allowed the girl to direct them to the lake she said her brother had gone to with JD. No one was really sure what to make of Harry, yet. While she seemed sincere in taking care of JD simply because it was the right thing to do, her behavior was odd: nervous at one moment, sarcastic in the next, and she always seemed to be talking a mile a minute. She did her best to explain what happened to their friend while he'd been missing, and each one of their hearts fell at the thought of their friend spending an entire week having no idea who he was.

While Harry Miller was certainly an odd young woman, there was one person who was acting even stranger than her: Perry. His hand was anxiously tapping the armrest on the door, and he stared out the car window unblinking. When the pier finally came into view, Perry sat up much straighter in his seat. After a second, everyone in the car saw why; JD's distinct lanky form was near the end of the pier, and he seemed to be trying to reason with a very distraught looking man who was barely clinging to the railing. Another man stood more to the side and was slowly making his way toward the distraught man.

Turk parked the car, but even before it was completely stopped, all the passengers were getting out and making their way toward the pier when the distraught man suddenly turned around, nearly falling in, to throw something. JD rushed at the man to pull him pack, and when the man frantically threw him off, the group broke into a run.

They all watched in horror as the railing that JD landed against splintered, and the young doctor toppled into the lake below. They all yelled loudly, as if that was really going to stop their friend's descent, but JD struck surface of the lake and sank anyway. Suddenly two members of the group took off in a dead sprint for the pier.

XVIIIIV

Harry really didn't know why she was running; what was she going to do? She wasn't a lifeguard nor did she have any First Aid training, but seeing the guy who'd grown on her in the past week (along with saving her hand) hit the waters made something in her snap. She knew the lake had to be freezing and the faster AG-JD got out, the better.

Harry barely registered that someone was running next to her, and as she prepared herself to dive in, which was going to be hell on her stitches, she was vaguely aware of that someone also preparing to dive.

Taking a deep breath, Harry braced herself for the freezing waters which were growing rapidly closer. When she hit, Harry distantly heard another splash that went along with hers. Quickly swimming up to the surface, Harry scanned the waters and saw AG-JD bobbing up and down about ten feet away. She started swimming toward him, but the person who'd jumped into the water along with her reached him first; if she remembered correctly, his name was Dr. Cox.

The man grabbed hold of AG-JD and looked up at her; Harry saw the question in his eyes. "Toward the beach," Harry shouted, pointing toward the lake's small beach.

The doctor nodded and readjusted his grip on AG-JD. "Help me keep his head up!" he shouted to her. Harry nodded and swam forward. She took hold of one of AG-JD's shoulders, and the two of them swam to the beach with AG-JD in tow.

The doctor pulled AG-JD onto the beach once their feet could touch, and Harry watched, semi-shocked, as the man did a quick once over on the unconscious doctor. Harry wrapped her arms around herself, which did nothing to combat the cold sinking into her body, and winced as her now sore hand rested uncomfortably against her side. The three others who'd come with the doctor, Carla, Turk, and Elliot if she remembered them all correctly, came running toward them; in the corner of her eye, Harry could see her brother, who was still on the pier, had his arm slung around a distraught Ryan.

Harry's attention finally made it back to the doctor and AG-JD on the beach. He was still, and Harry knew that the lake water hadn't been good on any of the three who'd been in the water. Not to mention the cut above his temple, which had finally began to heal, had reopened, and was bleeding slowly; once his body warmed back up, it would start to bleed faster.

She tried to decipher what Dr. Cox's body language meant; was the guy okay? He was incredibly still and pale. She didn't have to study for very long because the doctor suddenly spoke.

"He's not breathing!" He leaned down and pressed to fingers against the side of AG-JD's neck. "No pulse." Without even looking up, the doctor began CPR.

XVIIIIV

_"Bambi! Oh my God! Bambi!" _Carla stared at the still form of JD as Dr. Cox tried to restart his breathing. _"You've got to wake up, Bambi! Who is going to help me and Laverne find good gossip in the hospital? Who is going to help keep Elliot from going completely insane? What's Perry going to do?" _Carla's hand made it's way to her mouth, and she bit her nails nervously. _"Breathe, Bambi! Breathe!"_

XVIIIIV

_"This cannot be happening! It can't! He-he...that girl, she said he was just fine!" _Elliot threaded her hands in her hair. _"Please wake up JD! Please! I can't be at that hospital on my own! I've got to have someone there! Someone to tell me that things are going to work out! Who's going to help me when Dr. Cox gets incredibly angry and calls me Barbie or other mean things! JD! COME ON!"_

XVIIIIV

_"Come on, Vanilla Bear! Come on! You've got to wake up! I spent the entire week worrying __about you man! You can't end it like this! Who's-who's gonna hang out with me and watch the shows Carla won't watch! Who's gonna play find the saltine! Who's gonna help me take Rowdy for a walk? JD! Please, JD! Come on man!" _Turk stared as Dr. Cox continued with CPR. If he'd been standing in the hospital, he would have been down on his knees helping, but this wasn't a hospital. This was a beach, in a strange city, and that wasn't just any patient laying on the ground not breathing; it was JD. _"Please, JD! Man, I need you!"_

XVIIIIV

_"You are not...one...two...three...four...five breath...going to do...one...three...four...five breath...this to me...one...two...three...four...five...Newbie! You can't!" _As Perry did the chest compressions and rescue breaths, he couldn't help but think what would happen if JD didn't come back. _"One...two...three...four...five breath! Please, Newbie! I won't call you girl names-great...one...two...three...four...five breath...now I'm lying to the kid. One...two...three...four...five breath! Please! Breathe! Please, JD!" _

Suddenly, the greatest sound in the world filled the air. JD's still form suddenly sprang back to life, and JD started coughing badly. Perry gently turned JD onto his side and rubbed his back as JD coughed the water up onto the ground. Relief flooded through Perry's body, and he suddenly felt drained; with all the worry and fear of JD not coming back suddenly gone, Perry was left with an overwhelming sense of relief.

"Newbie?" Perry continued rubbing JD's back. "You with me?"

JD coughed again, and a bit of water gurgled in the back of his throat. JD's eyes slowly opened, and he spit out the rest of the water. Pushing back against the hand that was still rubbing his back, JD rolled back onto his back and stared up at the group around him. "He-hey," he said quietly; his voice was hoarse. "Um...long...time, no...see?" His words were punctuated by coughs.

For a person who'd been missing a week, it was a stupid thing to say to your friends, but it also has to be pretty hard to think of anything to say after nearly drowning and having your heart restarted. Part of Perry wanted to laugh uncontrollable in relief, part of him wanted to yell at JD for nearly dieing (as strange as that sounded), and another part of him just wanted to kiss JD to make sure that his Newbie was really there and alive. That part won.

Not caring that all of JD's friends were standing right behind him, probably wanting their turn to make sure he was alright, Perry leaned down, while JD suddenly sat up more as if knowing what Perry was meaning to do, and Perry kissed him hard. It seemed like the only person standing around them who wasn't shocked was Harry, who was only shaking her head and cradling her hand against her side.

Neither one of them was sure how long the kiss went on for, but when they finally pulled back, they were breathing a little harder; JD started coughing again, and Perry helped him sit up all the way. JD coughed up some more water and then looked around at the stunned faces of his friends. "Hi, guys!" He coughed. "I...um...I have...surprise?"

Carla, who didn't seem quite as dumbfounded as Turk and Elliot, was the first to react. She rushed forward and knelt down on the ground next to JD. Pulling him into a tight hug, she said, "God, Bambi! We have been so worried." She rubbed his back, and Perry saw a few tears slip from her closed eyes.

"I'm...okay, Carla." The wracking cough that grabbed hold of his body didn't do much to prove that theory. "I'm..just..fine."

The shock of big bad Dr. Cox kissing JD right in front of them finally seemed to wear off, and Turk and Elliot joined Carla in welcoming their friend back. Turk knelt down at JD's right shoulder and clapped his friend on the shoulder once before just leaving his hand their. "Good to have you back, Vanilla Bear. Rowdy was really starting to miss you."

Elliot hand thrown her arms around JD's neck to join Carla in the hug and was crying uncontrollable tears of joy into JD's already soaking t-shirt. As this went on, Perry took a few steps back, ending up standing next to Harry, who was watching the scene with fascination.

"He's really loved," she said absently to Perry.

The doctor turned toward the young woman; she was no longer some strange girl who might have taken good care of JD that week. Perry knew that she did care for their friend in some way, if her diving into the water after him told them anything. "Yeah," said Perry. "Michelle here is pretty loved." Harry tilted her head slightly and turned to stare at Perry. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, and Perry suddenly noticed how badly she was shaking. He then noticed that his own teeth had begun to chatter. The fall temperatures may have been fifty some degrees, but the lake water had to have been much colder than that. As if to validate his point, JD's trembling voice suddenly spoke from inside the group hug. "I'm...pre-pretty...col-cold."

Perry stepped in and interrupted the hug. "As touching as this love-fest is, Joan..." He looked over his shoulder at the girl who'd taken care of JD. "Harry, and I were all in that water for a lot more than the recommended don't get in the water at all. I think it's probably time we all get out of the cold air and probably get some dry clothes."

Elliot and Carla both released their hold on JD, and Turk helped his friend back to his feet. As much as Perry wanted to be the one supporting JD as they all walked back to the car, Perry let Turk. The sympathetic side of him, which seldom saw the light of day, knew that JD's friends needed to be there for JD just as badly as he did. Besides, he still needed to find away to explain kissing Newbie that wouldn't result in the entire hospital knowing about it by the time they got back.

Harry took a brief detour to explain the situation to Steven and then joined the rest of them back at the car. Steven was apparently going to take the distraught Ryan home and then get back to the apartment as soon as possible. The ride back to Harry's apartment was cramped and filled with arguments over whether or not they should take Harry, Perry, and especially JD to the hospital. With three doctors, a surgeon, and a nurse all in the car, they finally decided that they would probably be safe skipping the hospital.

JD ended up sitting on Perry's lap, which didn't seem to bother either of them a bit, and Harry was scrunched up against Elliot, still cradling her hand. If the circumstances had been different, Elliot probably would have been complaining about the fact Harry was dripping cold water on her, but with everything the way it was, she simply tried to scoot closer to the door to keep herself dry.

Perry kept a loose grip on JD all the way back to the apartment as everyone else in the car tried to catch JD up on what had been going on at the hospital, and JD in return tried to explain some of what had happened to him during the week he'd been missing. Perry really didn't listen to any of what was going on. Instead, he was thinking about what had so nearly happened. When Carla had told him that they might have found JD, he'd been ecstatic, but when he saw JD fall into the water, his heart had nearly stopped.

Unconsciously, Perry tightened his grip on JD and closed his eyes. _"Don't ever do that to me again, Newbie. Ever!"_

**TBC**


	10. Chapter X

Title: These Exiled Years

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the concept of Scrubs.

Summary: After the unexpected death of a patient and some drunken confessions, JD starts out on a strange new relationship. That is until the patient's bereaved son takes everything that makes JD who is he is from him.

Note: The song in this chapter is "These Exiled Years" by Flogging Molly which this story is named after. I want everyone to clap for Wolfie because they did an awesome job betaing this story and never got annoyed at my lack of patience. This will most likely be the last thing I write for awhile. I hope you all enjoyed. Thanks for all the reviews. Ryo

**Warning: **This is a slash story: JD/Perry. If you do not like these stories, please stop reading because all flames based on the fact this is a slash story will be cruelly mocked along with their flamer in the next chapter.

**These Exiled Years**

Chapter X

"_Because the truth is, it's all of your memories, the joyful ones and the heart breaking ones, that make up who you are as a person." JD "Scrubs"_

After the drive back to the apartment and Harry, Perry, and JD changing into some dry clothes (Turk and Carla had brought some clothes for JD, and Perry had his own spares to change into), the group all sat in the living room of Harry's apartment. Harry and JD were trying to explain all of what happened in the past week that lead up to the whole scene at the lake, and Turk, Carla, and Elliot were trying to catch JD up on what had gone on at the hospital while he was missing. Even Perry joined in when Carla starting talking about John Williams and the punch the entire hospital was still talking about.

"You punched him in the face?" said JD, turning to Perry who was sitting to the right of him on the couch.

Perry crossed his arms and shrugged. "He wasn't being too forthcoming with information, Abbie."

Carla shook her head. "It might also have been the fact the guy screamed that he hoped you were dead." JD looked back toward Perry who didn't say anything in response.

"John Williams was the guy who grabbed me. He told me he just wanted to know about his mother's last few days. He also said he needed to sit down on a bench. We walked around to the back of the hospital, and the next thing I know, the guy's hitting me in the head with something."

"You didn't think any of that was odd?" asked Perry, shaking his head.

"Come on, Dr. Cox," said Elliot, stepping in to defend JD. "He just wanted to help the guy out." Perry turned to glare at Elliot. "Sir."

"How did you end up here?" asked Turk.

JD shrugged. "I only kinda remember waking up once, I think. Someone knocked me out again after that. Then, I think I remember someone carrying me. After that, the next thing I remember is Steven waking me up."

"We tried calling and searching everywhere we could think," explained Carla. "Which reminds, I need to call your brother and tell him we found you. He's been keeping in touch with your mom just in case she heard from you."

"How did you end up figuring out who he was?" Perry asked Harry, who'd settled into a short chair on the floor of the apartment.

"Well, a few nights ago, I was cooking supper, and Steven was telling...JD that his friend Ryan, the guy on the pier, had found a group and therapy for people with amnesia. We were discussing how it was all gonna get paid for when I ended up cutting open my hand." Harry held up her newly bandaged hand to illustrate her point. "JD here kind of sprung into action, and after we got back from the clinic, it kind of dawned on me that he might be a doctor."

"My brother is a cop, so he got us copies of missing person's reports that fit JD,and we started making phone calls. Carla, I think you were the seventeenth person we called." Harry paused. "We talked to some pretty weird people."

JD nodded in agreement, remembering having to check to see if there was a birthmark on his butt cheek, and then a set of coughs wracked his body; everyone immediately turned to make sure he was all right. JD waved off their attention, but allowed Perry to keep a comforting hand on his back. While most people would have agreed that Perry, JD, and Harry probably should have been checked out, all three didn't seem too keen on visiting the hospital. Perry and JD just wanted to get back as soon as possible, and Harry just wasn't a person that cared for medical attention unless it was absolutely necessary.

The explanations and stories continued until Steve returned to the apartment, carrying a couple boxes of pizza. After putting the pizzas on the coffee table, Steve provided a brief explanation as to what happened to Ryan; he simply said that he'd taken Ryan back to his apartment, and another friend was staying with him.

Steven then asked Harry to help him get some beers from the kitchen, but almost everyone knew that he was probably giving his sister a more in depth explanation.

_I can't say I much care for the guy since he threw me into the lake, but I hope he's okay. Man, that lake was cold. _JD suddenly saw an ice version of himself hurrying down the hospital halls, diagnosing patients, and sitting on the couch with Turk and Rowdy. His daydream was interrupted by Perry.

"Hey, Nicole, Gandhi is talking to you."

JD looked up and saw Turk holding out a plate with a slice of pizza. "JD, do you want a beer or not?"

JD nodded and took the plate. He hadn't noticed when Steven and Harry came back into the room, but Harry seemed a little put off by her brother. If it wasn't for the fact everyone else was sitting around in the living room, JD might have asked what was wrong, but after a few minutes of drinking and eating, Harry's mood seemed to improve.

XVIIIIV

_It's four in the mornin'  
Battered and numb  
A loaded room, an empty gun  
I whistle a tune, I heard years before  
The clock started tickin'  
Where did the time go _

"Take care of yourself," Harry murmured as she hugged JD tightly. "I don't want Steven to come back to my apartment with a memory-less you in tow again."

"I will," replied JD. His friends had already said their quick goodbyes and were waiting for him to finish his. "Make sure you see a doctor about your hand..."

"If it turns unusually red, swells, or is causing more pain than usual," Harry finished she let go of him. "Goodbye." She swallowed hard, and JD thought her eyes looked a little glassy, but he didn't say anything.

JD turned toward Steven, who was standing just behind his sister. Steven extended his hand for JD to shake, but after just a few seconds, JD had pulled him into a tight hug. "I'll miss ya," Steven said quietly. "Good luck...and everything." JD let go of him. "If you're ever in Kentworth, stop by the Gamestop."

JD nodded. "I will."

_I danced to the mornin'  
She called out my name  
The wind was a howlin'  
And down came the rain  
Her arms they caressed me  
Sweet was her brow  
She opened my eyes  
To banish the doubt _

Steven and Harry both waved goodbye as they flowed out into the hall.

As the group was leaving, Carla stopped and turned back toward them; Perry had paused just a few feet in front of her. "Thank you," said Carla, "for taking care of Bambi." Perry nodded at Harry and Steven as if to say that he agreed with Carla.

"No problem," said Harry. She and Steven waved goodbye and stood in the hall until the group had disappeared into the stairwell. Harry and Steven walked back into the apartment, and Steven saw his sister wipe at her eyes.

"Ah...did someone warm my little sister's cold, cold heart?" asked Steven, putting his arm around his sister's shoulders.

"Shut up." She may have sounded a little angry, but a smile was pulling at her lips.

_Wash me down in all of your joy  
But don't drag me through this again_

"Come on. There's still some pizza and beer in here." Steven walked back over to the coffee table, but Harry stayed by the door.

"We didn't fight as much when he was here," said Harry quietly. "Do you...do you think it's gonna stay that way?"

Steven looked up and shrugged his shoulders. "We can try."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm glad he's got his life back, but..." Harry wiped her eyes. "But I'm gonna miss him."

"Me too." Harry looked over he shoulder at the door and then joined her brother on the couch.

_I've heard all your sad songs I can hear  
It's in with the whiskey and out with the gin  
I've heard all your sad songs I can hear  
It's another day older  
In These Exiled Years_

XVIIIIV

With everything that had happened that day and the fact it was a long drive home from Kentworth, they decided it was probably best to stay in a hotel for the night. It took a lot of debating, but the splitting up of the group for the rooms was finally decided. Elliot would stay in the room with Carla and Turk, which had been decided by the flip of a coin, and Perry and JD would stay in the other, which everyone thought was odd, including JD and Perry.

Despite the fact the whole point of staying in a hotel for the night was so they would be able to drive back without being completely exhausted, the group all gathered in Turk, Carla, and Elliot's room and continued talking. Even Perry joined, although for most of the time he sat in the chair near the door and remained quiet.

"So..." started Turk, "were Harry and Steven always that...?"

"Off?" finished JD.

"That's one way of pointing it, but yeah."

JD shrugged. "Yeah, but you got used to it after awhile. They were really nice though, even if they were a little...strange. Their brother Freddie was nice too."

The group lapsed into silence for a few seconds, and then Elliot broke it. "I know we all thought we might beat around the bush and maybe even avoid the subject altogether, but I can't!" She turned toward JD. "JD, why did Dr. Cox kiss you?!"

JD figured if anyone was going to be the one to ask about it, Elliot would be the one. "Well...umm...you see..." He looked over his shoulder at Perry, looking to see what explanation the older man wanted him to give.

"And the fact that you let him sit on your lap on the way back from the lake, Dr. Cox?" Elliot continued.

"Which was weird by the way," Turk threw in.

Perry's eyes got wide at the fact Elliot had flat out asked him the question and Turk's comment, but he didn't seem to be able to formulate an answer.

"I mean..." said Turk. "I was kinda wondering about that too, Vanilla Bear." It was obvious from the look on his face that he was more than "kinda wondering." It seemed like Carla was the only one in the hotel room who wasn't dying to hear the explanation, probably because she already knew the answer.

JD looked back over at Perry, not entirely sure how to answer the questions. With a shrug, Perry replied, "Go ahead and tell them, Beatrice." He leaned back in the chair, obviously not looking forward to JD's explanation.

"Well...umm...Perry-I mean Dr. Cox and I..."_ How do you tell your friends that you're suddenly dating not only a man, but also the man who's called you girl names and insulted you since the day you became an intern? _"Dr. Cox and I are kinda together?" _That seems to work._

Turk and Elliot's jaws dropped, and Carla crossed her arms with all-knowing smirk on her face. Perry covered his face with his hand; JD's way of explaining it was obviously not the way he'd wanted.

"Could you have said it any girlier there, Regina?" said Perry, shaking his head.

"Wait, wait, wait," said Turk. "JD, are you gay?" Elliot was still in a stunned silence.

"Um...well...actually, I think I'm bi."

Turk nodded and then started speaking quickly. "I mean it's not that I care, man. You can like whoever you want. Whatever makes you happy." He was looking at Perry nervously through the corner of his eye.

It was now Elliot's turn to ask a question, although, she didn't do it with as much control as Turk had managed. "Dr. Cox, are you gay?!"

JD turned red, feeling the embarrassment for Perry over that question, and Turk and Carla both shook their heads. Perry was glaring at Elliot, and she looked as though she was going to run away any second.

Amazingly enough, Perry didn't explode in anger, storm out of the room, or start in on rant to Elliot. Instead, Perry took a deep breath (or ten) and then started in on his answer. "I'm not gay," said Perry. "So don't think that you are going to get me back for all the times I've made fun of you with that, Barbie. I just like Alexis. Okay?"

"Okay." Elliot swallowed hard.

"Another thing," said Perry; it was now time for his rant. "I don't want you three spreading my and Newbie's relationship all around the hospital. I really didn't want you guys to know yet, but I guess there is no way around that now. Right now, if I'm going to be able to handle being in a relationship with someone as annoying and girly as Amanda, then I'm going to need to be able to walk down the hall of the hospital without being stopped by everyone and having them mention the fact Newbie and I are together. Okay?" Carla, Turk, Elliot, and even JD nodded. "Good. Eventually, probably soon, I won't care enough to do anything about it if the hospital knows, but not yet."

Although most people would have found what Perry said ridiculous and somewhat offensive, JD was elated to hear them; those words meant that Perry was actually going to try and make this work.

"Umm..." said Turk. "JD, if you don't mind...um...how did you two figure all this out?"

JD shrugged. "It all...kinda of came out while...while we were in the bar." _And we when went back to his apartment. _"I think I had a few too many." _Or four._

Their conversations continued, but thankfully for Perry and JD, they strayed away from their new relationship. It was either because it was just getting too awkward to discuss or Perry was beginning to look a little more annoyed with everything, but they all finally decided that it was best to talk about something else. They all talked for about another hour before JD and Perry went back to their own room.

XVIIIIV

_The dew on the ground  
Blankets the face  
Cold was the night  
Gone her embrace  
For your land of the free  
Now prisons me  
To rot in this jail  
Of lost liberty _

They stared at the two beds in the hotel room, neither one of them really wanting to say anything. The whole fact they were in a relationship together was still strange, and JD and Perry were still unsure of where it was going; the two separate beds in the room and the fact that neither of them had said anything since walking into the room was overwhelming proof of that.

"So..." JD finally said, breaking the silence that was becoming overbearing. "Um...which bed do you want to sleep in?"

Perry scoffed and shook his head. "You know, Barbara, we've already slept in the same bed once. If you're scared that I'm going to deflower you, you can calm down; I'll wait for the second date to do that."

JD shrugged. "Still kind of weird and everything." JD tried to give him a smile, but it came out more as a nervous grimace.

Perry sighed; this was coming sooner or later. "Look, Newbie, I'm going to do something that I swore I would ne-he-ver do, and if you tell anyone at the hospital, I will not only deny it, I will tell the entire staff that you still watch Disney Movies." _I knew he already knew I watched Disney Movies! Dammit! _

Taking a deep breath, Perry walked toward JD and pulled him into his arms. Unlike the kisses they had shared, the hug was different. It wasn't the result of feelings they'd kept to themselves for too long; it was something JD had wanted from Perry for a long time. JD always wanted hugs from people he cared about, even if it made them a little uncomfortable.

_Walk away, watch me as I wave  
One foot here, but sure the other's in the grave  
Walk away, walk away_

JD slowly slid his arms around Perry, and they stayed that way for several minutes. If JD asked later, Perry would simply tell him it was because he looked pretty pathetic just standing there after nearly drowning a few hours before; Perry would never tell him that maybe, just maybe, he kind of wanted it too.

_Dr. Cox, I mean Perry, hugged me. He hugged me! Ha! Where's my journal?! Dammit! It's back at my apartment! Who cares? He hugged me! I knew I could get him to hug me!_

JD opened his mouth to say such to Perry, but as if he was psychic and knew exactly was coming, Perry stopped him. "Say one word, Vanessa, and everyone in the hospital knows your favorite movie is _Sleeping Beauty_."

"It is not. It's _The Lion King._ Besides, _Sleepy Beauty_ had some exciting parts, like the dragon in the end."

Perry shook his head, incapable of actually thinking of anything to say to that. He slowly released JD and looked over at the bed. "Well, Newbie, I think we might actually want to get some sleep. As tempting as it is to stay up all night so I can sleep in the car and avoid listening to you and your gal pals talk about shopping and make-up tips, I'm afraid that if I was asleep, you might decide to test some of those tips out on me. I know you personally don't have any make-up with you, but Dr. Barbie doesn't go anywhere without it. It is included in the accessories that are written all pretty on her packaging.

_Almost two years, and I'm still amazed at how long Perry can rant about a single thing without running out of material._

"Same bed?" asked JD hopefully.

Perry rolled his eyes. "Yes, Annie. Same bed."

JD smiled, and he and Perry both got ready for bed. It was somewhat awkward as they both got into bed, and JD stayed on the left side just in case Perry wanted space. Despite the first time they slept in the same bed, JD was pretty sure Perry was not a cuddler.

Perry's voice broke through the darkness and nearly scared JD to death. "You are allowed to move over, Newbie."

JD smiled, which Perry couldn't see, and scooted over until his head was resting on Perry's shoulder. They stayed that way for several minutes, neither of them speaking, until JD was brave enough to break the silence.

"Is this going to work out?" JD's voice was quiet and somewhat nervous.

"The bed situation is going to work out fine," replied Perry. "I haven't made you move to the other bed, have I?"

"That's not what I mean. I meant that-"

"I know what you meant, Nancy." Perry rolled over to face JD and slid his arms around the younger man's waist. "I'm going to say something, Newbie, and I want you to listen carefully because I am not going to repeat this, understand?" JD nodded. "I don't know if this is going to work, but I do know that in the week you were gone, I was not only worried, but I missed you." JD opened his mouth, but Perry put a finger to his lips to keep him from talking. "You let me finish, or I won't say anymore." JD nodded. "I just kept thinking about you, and when the guy who kidnapped you showed up at the hospital trying to get information about his mother, I almost lost it. I punched him when he said that he hoped you were dead, and then I realized just how much I care about you."

"When I saw you fall into the water, which, by the way, you are never allowed to do again, my heart stopped for a second. I don't know if this is going to work out, but I want to try, JD. Okay?" JD nodded, almost too nervous to respond aloud. "Good." Perry smiled, which was almost too hard to see in the dark, and leaned forward, capturing JD's lips with his own.

JD willingly gave in as Perry rolled him onto his back, and after a few seconds, JD let out a surprised moan as Perry slid his tongue into his mouth. JD in return slid his hands under the t-shirt Perry was wearing and kissed Perry back, hard. They continued on like this fore several minutes before they finally broke breathless.

"Um..." said JD, panting. "Sleep."

"I really wish we didn't need it," murmured Perry as he leaned forward and kissed JD again.

They broke apart. "I'm gonna still be here in the morning."

Perry laughed and shook his head. "You really are a girl, Delilah."

JD smiled before leaning up and kissing Perry one last time. Perry rolled back onto his own side of the bed, pulling JD toward him gently. JD leaned back into the embrace and fell asleep a few minutes later; a permanent smile seemed to be planted on his face.

_I've heard all your sad songs I can hear  
It's in with the whiskey and out with the gin  
I've heard all your sad songs I can hear  
It's another day older  
In These Exiled Years _

_**Finem**_


End file.
